Ultimate Rest

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

0 views

May 19, 2024

Don Filcek; Matthew 11:25-30 Ultimate Rest

00:20: You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. Good morning and welcome to Recast Church.
00:27: As Ben said, I'm Don Filsick. I'm the lead pastor here. And I love you guys. I love this church. Some of you are newer here and you go, like, how can you love me?
00:35: Well, we have a lot in common. If you're here and maybe it's your first time, you've only been here a handful of times, but you're here and you're desiring to connect with my
00:44: Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and we have that in common and that's a glorious and beautiful thing. And so, I love the way that we hold so much in common right out of the gate with other believers.
00:53: Do you know what I'm talking about? Like, right out of the gate, we know that we've got some very core things in common with one another because Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and rose again and we have hope in that.
01:05: And so, God is calling out to each one of us. Christ is reigning over us as King.
01:11: The Spirit is convicting and encouraging us in our daily lives. I see the Trinitarian work of God alive and forging this church from the very beginning in that basement 15 years ago to where we're at today.
01:24: And God has shown himself in our church to be faithful time and time again. I hope you can reflect on your own life and see his faithfulness in your life time and time again as well.
01:35: This morning, we're gonna be wrapping up a brief and really rare topical series on the subject of rest.
01:41: And I say rare because I think maybe only three or four times in 15 years of recast have
01:47: I done something topically like this. But I thought that it would be really valuable for us to dive a little bit deeper into rest here.
01:53: And obviously, I'm processing that as I'm gonna be going on a sabbatical too. But not just for me, but for all of us to take that on.
02:01: Two weeks ago, we heard the call to Sabbath rest from Genesis and Exodus. And God created the world and modeled rest for us in the six days of creation.
02:14: And then one day of Sabbath rest. And then God further commanded rest in the
02:20: Ten Commandments, the fourth commandment. Emphasizing that for his Old Testament people, a day of rest was not optional in the
02:26: Old Testament. Now we know that we live under grace now. We don't live under law, but we live under grace given to us through our
02:33: Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And our Lord shows us though what he desires for us in this consistent call from Scripture to a work and rest balance.
02:43: All of us called into this type of balance in our lives. What he issued in the
02:49: Old Testament was one day every seven. A day set aside to cease striving.
02:56: A day set aside to cease working your own plan. One day set aside each week to trust in his work.
03:03: One day set aside to trust in his plan. Last week we considered the faith that this command requires of us.
03:11: It's not easy in a world like we have in which we live. It's risky to rest in a sin -cursed world where weeds grow in our sleep, right?
03:21: And if we're honest, we recognize within many of our own hearts the call to abuse rest. Especially in this modern technological society that we live in to want more leisure, to idolize entertainment.
03:31: All of our hearts are pulled in various directions when it comes to work. Some pulled towards workaholism.
03:37: Others were pulled towards the, again, the idolatry of entertainment. And where there's a temptation within us to give into the world's lies that our life is our own for our own fun, right?
03:50: Our life is ours. It belongs to us. And it is our own for our own fun would be kind of the cry of our age.
03:57: So far this series could run the risk of too much emphasis, though, on pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps and just obeying
04:04: God even against your own will. Like, I've just got to make this rest happen. I've just got to force myself.
04:11: And it could hit many of us, to be quite honest, as a series of guilt. Like you might hear these messages these last couple of weeks and say,
04:19: Man, I just walk away feeling guilty because I know I'm not practicing the ideal of Sabbath rest that God desires of me.
04:27: Well, a little bit of guilt can be healthy and it can be okay, but we don't primarily work and move, like I said, based on law.
04:35: And so this message is supposed to bring it all together. This message this morning is meant to wrap up this short series by reminding us of the work that has already been done for us.
04:46: What is the work that God has already done that we're called to remember as we heed His call to trust in Him, to rest in Him, and to give our labor over to Him?
04:56: What is the work that's already been done? And we'll be looking at that in our passage this morning. Jesus will call us all to an ultimate sense of rest.
05:05: And I just pitch a couple questions out to you this morning in preparation for our time of worship, our time of reading the
05:11: Word, time of worship. And here's the question. Are you weary? Are you weary?
05:18: Are you tired? Do you feel like you can't go on?
05:24: Well, I'm not sure exactly where every single person is in this room. I know many of you. I've talked with many of you.
05:31: I know burdens that many of you carry. I know that many of you are weary.
05:37: I know that many of you feel the crush of financial worries. I think all of us know what it's like to feel the weight of sin.
05:45: Sin that crushes us. Our own sin. Our own brokenness that weighs heavy on us.
05:50: But then also the sins of others too. We see it. The sins of those that we love. That we watch them destroying their own lives right before our very eyes.
05:58: All of us feel the weight of the headlines and the news and a very divisive culture, right? And some of us even feel the fear that comes with self -condemnation.
06:09: Some are carrying burdens that are way, way, way too heavy. As a matter of fact,
06:14: I would suggest to you we carry often burdens that we are not supposed to keep on our own shoulders. So our text begins with hope that here in the text anyone can arrive at this ultimate rest.
06:26: Anyone can come to this ultimate rest. And then the text is going to explain the unique qualifications of Jesus to offer to everyone ultimate rest.
06:35: He's uniquely qualified to be able to offer you rest this morning. And then the text ends with Jesus then ultimately issuing the call.
06:43: Calling us all to His ultimate rest. Note that this call is not here to merely one day in every seven kind of rest.
06:56: But the ultimate rest that Jesus is calling us all to is an ultimate rest for our souls.
07:03: This life that is meant to be lived in cycles of weeks that make up months that make up years.
07:09: Ask yourself, where's it all going? If you're anything like me, you can kind of tend to take life at you as it comes at you.
07:16: Do you guys know what I'm saying? All of a sudden you just realize, I'm just kind of living. Like I wake up, the alarm goes off,
07:22: I go do the things. And then I go to bed, and then I wake up, the alarm goes off, and then I go do the things. Do you guys know what
07:27: I'm talking about? In the introspection of, where's it all going? What's it all for? It's good for us to take time to pause and consider and think, what is this life for?
07:40: Where's it going? For those with a humble acceptance of the things that Jesus reveals here in this text, we are going to a place.
07:49: We are going to an ultimate rest. And while on the road, Jesus is there working alongside us, pulling with us, for us in kindness.
07:58: His yoke is easy, and his burden is light. So let's open our devices or your
08:07: Bibles to Matthew chapter 11. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 11, verses 25 through 30.
08:14: And recast, as I like to say to you, this is God's holy word. This is what he desires for us to take on.
08:19: And this is him speaking to us now. I mean, I'm going to try to make sense of this in our current context, and that's the sermon.
08:26: And I'll do that later, but right now, we have an opportunity together to hear the voice of God. It's my voice.
08:32: It's his words. Matthew chapter 11, starting in verse 25. At that time,
08:40: Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to little children.
08:53: Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my
09:00: Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the
09:05: Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden.
09:10: And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.
09:16: For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
09:27: Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in praise this morning. What a cause to praise,
09:34: Father. What a reason to rejoice. What a reason to flap open our mouths and jabber about you, to speak highly of you, to speak words of grace and of your kindness and your mercy to us.
09:51: You sending forth your Son, and this bold and brash declaration that he is the one who can give us rest.
10:01: I believe that everybody in this room has some level of desire. If they've lived a little bit, there's a weariness that settles on us day by day, year by year, month by month.
10:13: We look forward to rest. Many of us are weary. Many of us are nearly crushed.
10:20: Many of us feel pushed down by the circumstances of our lives and the situations around us. Yes, there's glimmers of joy.
10:26: Yes, there's glimmers of happiness, even counting our blessings and considering the great things that you've given to us in the here and now.
10:33: But we know that those things are just passing in comparison to the thing that you have given us that we treasure and value the most.
10:42: A Lord and Savior who came, who paid the price for us, who rose again to promise eternal life to anyone who would follow him by faith, that that would be the seat of our joy.
10:53: That would be the seat of our purpose. That would be the seat of our hope. That all else would revolve around this one thing.
11:03: That Christ is our Lord and Savior. Father, I pray that you would receive this praise before your throne as we sing these songs in glad hearts.
11:15: Hearts where we've been lifted up from the mud and the mire to be set on a trajectory, a pathway of hope and peace and true rest.
11:23: I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and make yourself comfortable. Keep your
11:29: Bibles open to Matthew 11, verses 25 -30. If you lost your place there, or maybe you weren't here when we read that earlier,
11:36: Matthew 11, 25 -30 is the text for this morning. The core of the message this week is this.
11:43: If you hear this, then you know where we're going. That is that Jesus promises to ease our weariness, lighten our burdens, and give ultimate rest for the soul of anyone who comes to Him in humble trust.
11:57: That's where we're going. That's the message. It's going to come at us through three movements in the text.
12:03: The first is the availability of ultimate rest, verses 25 -26. The second is why
12:09: Jesus can offer, or why He can offer ultimate rest, what uniquely qualifies Him to be able to do that.
12:15: That's just verse 27. Then the rest of the passage is the call to ultimate rest, verses 28 -30.
12:23: Set into the context, you've got to understand that we're jumping in, we're diving into the middle of a book, and that's one of the dangers of a topical series, that you're suddenly just like, boom, okay, we're in the middle of chapter 11 of Matthew, where it does absolutely talk about ultimate rest.
12:39: But into this context, this is set in the context of rejection and repentance. This is where we start to see
12:45: Jesus discussing the availability of the great benefit that He desires for all of us to understand, that is rest.
12:52: I think that the question that He begins with right off the bat here in the availability of ultimate rest is, is this rest offered to everyone?
13:01: Do you need to be a religious leader to qualify for this rest? Do you need to give a lot? Do you need to work a lot?
13:07: Do you need to learn a lot or attend church a lot? If there's an ultimate rest, church,
13:14: I want it. Do you? If there's an ultimate rest, I want it. And I want to know who qualifies.
13:23: Who qualifies? How do I get that? Jesus has just put three villages in Galilee on blast.
13:29: That's the context. You can go back and look at verses 20 through 24. I'm not going to read it, because if I read that, then
13:34: I've got to go back to the previous context, and then we might as well start over at Matthew 1. But in context,
13:41: He's put these three villages, Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, He's put them on blast.
13:46: The townspeople have rejected Jesus and His teachings in exchange for their religious leaders, in exchange for their religious leaders who were experts in the law.
13:55: They chose the legalists, the law people, the chief priests and the highly educated over Jesus.
14:04: He had worked even miracles there in their midst, and they rejected Him, and that's where we see this call to rest coming from.
14:11: He has told them that if Sodom had seen the miracles that He performed in these little villages of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, if Sodom had seen the things that He did there, they would have repented.
14:24: So the idea of rejecting His message of His coming kingdom was flat out in this context turned down.
14:32: They said, no, we don't want that. We don't even believe you are who you say you are. And it was primarily because of their great religious learning and great religious pride that they refused to repent and turned to the
14:42: King of all kings who was walking in their midst, trying to win their hearts.
14:47: And they said, no, we don't want that. So who can receive then? Who can receive the rest that Jesus is about to offer?
14:55: Who can come into a rest that only the good news can provide? Jesus launches out here in this text into an impromptu prayer.
15:05: It says at the start of verse 25, at that time Jesus declared, well, actually at that time Jesus prayed.
15:11: And have any of you ever been in a large, maybe a group, maybe it was a family gathering, and you're talking really loud to the person next to you, and then all of a sudden you realize somebody is praying?
15:20: Like, oh, I guess we're praying for dinner now, right? Any of you know what I'm talking about? And it's like, ah, I guess we're doing this.
15:26: I picture Peter doing that in this context, right? I mean, as you get to know the disciples, he would be the one who would be like talking over.
15:33: Oh, wait, Jesus is praying. Everybody's like, shh, shh, okay, okay. But Jesus prays a really strange prayer here in this text.
15:42: The word thanks there that you see in the English standard version could also be in different translations translate that.
15:48: Praise, I thank you, Father. I praise you, Father. He praises and thanks the
15:53: Father God that he has hidden the kingdom from the self -dependent and self -reliant who trust in their books and trust in their own wisdom and trust in their own great learning and their own efforts.
16:05: He says, I'm thankful that you've hidden the kingdom from such as these. Now, I want to point out that this gives
16:11: God an active role in hiding the truth, and that seems strange to us. But the way Jesus talks here in verse 25 is one of contrast in the first and second part of verse 25.
16:21: The second half of verse 25 qualifies the first. I thank you that you've hidden because you have revealed.
16:28: God has actively disclosed himself. He has actively revealed himself, but it's to whom he has revealed himself that is key in this passage.
16:37: He has revealed himself to those who would understand that they are little children.
16:43: To whom would Jesus reveal himself? Who has eyes to see this Messiah King come in flesh?
16:50: The little children. While the kingdom remains hidden to those who will remain proud and arrogant and think themselves to be something.
17:01: This doesn't mean that a proud person can ever come into God's kingdom. They can come in, they just have to stop being proud.
17:08: They can, but they need to become humble. In other words, as long as a person remains in their pride, remains self -dependent, remains in their state of thinking that they're educated enough to get this and understand it, as long as a person remains wise in their own eyes or trusting in their own tradition or their own efforts or their own wisdom, they will not be able to discern the kingdom of God.
17:32: Unless you become trusting like a little child, dependent like a little child, humble like a little child, you will not be able to enter his kingdom.
17:41: You guys understand what he's saying? Jesus is stoked. By the time you get to verse 26, it's like he's enthusiastic.
17:48: He's praying, and he says he amens himself in the middle of his own prayer. The word yes there is an amen.
17:55: He says, I am thankful that these things are hidden from the wise and the understanding and that you revealed them to the littlest children.
18:03: Yes, amen, Father, for such was your gracious will.
18:11: Note in verse 26 that Jesus tells them directly that salvation comes through this necessity of humility because it was the
18:18: Father's decree that it be this way. His gracious will is to open the pathway to the least of us, to even people like us.
18:29: You want to give an amen to that? Even people with my IQ can get this.
18:36: You don't have to have PhDs. You don't have to go to seminary. You don't have to become learned to get this.
18:43: He opened the pathway to the least of us, and Jesus is over the moon about that. Thank you, Father, for doing it this way.
18:50: Thank you, Father, for opening it to everyone. There is no credential necessary to receive the rest that the
18:56: King is calling us to into this text except for a humble, empty -handed trust that we call, all throughout
19:02: Scripture, we call it that because the Scriptures call it that. Faith is what it is, a humble, empty -handed trust.
19:09: That is faith. Faith in the King, a faith that responds to come to Him when
19:15: He calls. In these first two verses, we see the wide and broad availability of the ultimate rest
19:22: He is about to offer. Presidents and kings can now come to this one as long as they come as little children.
19:29: They don't come as presidents. Nobody comes before this one as a president. Nobody comes before this one as a king.
19:34: They come as a little child or they don't come at all. Drug -addled homeless beggars and prostitutes can come as long as they come like little children.
19:44: Biden and Trump, Pelosi and McConnell, Jay -Z, Beyonce, and even Taylor Swift herself, your next -door neighbor, your boss, your co -worker, and your mom.
19:56: Anyone can come to this ultimate rest if they would just come and respond to His call as a little child.
20:04: Anyone. The bar is so low that it's scandalous. It's got to take more than that.
20:10: Scholars have said that down through the ages. Scholars, did you hear what I said? Scholars have said, no, you've got to be like us.
20:16: You've got to get this learning. You've got to pack this in. I believe, not to denigrate them, I just think it's evident.
20:23: I think the Catholics invented penance and purgatory for this very reason. It can't be that simple. You've got to do something to earn it.
20:31: You've got to say your Hail Marys. You've got to do your stuff. You've got to do your things. Even after this life, you've got to go pay some of it.
20:38: Come on, man, faith can't be enough, right? No, come like a child with empty hands, thirsty.
20:50: Mama, can I have the sippy cup? Like that. So you can drink down salvation.
20:57: Come to Him. Come to Him needy. Come to Him with your stress.
21:03: Come to Him with your weight. Come to Him with your burdens. And let Him take them from you.
21:10: You're the needy one, and He is the infinite one. The kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of ultimate rest, is available to any and all who would come to Jesus like a little child.
21:24: So depend on Him. Trust Him. Your soul needs Him. Your soul needs the rest that He alone can give.
21:33: You must come to Him. But Jesus doesn't leave us hanging here in this text so far.
21:39: When we get through these first couple of verses, He's merely expressed the availability of His kingdom and that it's available to even the least.
21:47: And just to clarify, the reason I keep saying kingdom is I'm really translating and using a phrase from verse 25 that needs some definition.
21:57: He says, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things.
22:03: What are these things? What are these things? I'm going back to that to say
22:09: Matthew's entire gospel account emphasizes what Jesus came to declare. What were those things?
22:15: He came preaching the kingdom of God and that He was the king of the kingdom of God.
22:20: He's referencing in verse 25 the very things that were rejected by those Galilean villages up north.
22:26: What they rejected fundamentally was the messianic kingship of Jesus Himself. So Jesus wraps up His impromptu prayer and begins to teach the disciples and He lets us know why
22:37: He is uniquely qualified, why He can offer ultimate rest in verse 27. That's our second movement of the text, second point.
22:44: Why can Jesus offer ultimate rest? He answers this. This single verse gives the credentials of Jesus to be the one gateway of the kingdom.
22:53: Why must we come through Him? What qualifies Him? What makes Him the one that gives Him the right to be the one?
23:01: I think it's great that Jesus answers this question so directly for us here in verse 27. He presupposes that many will ask, who do you think you are?
23:11: He's already faced it. That's what they were asking Him in Chorazin. That's what they were asking Him in Bethsaida. That's what they were asking
23:17: Him in Capernaum. That's what it looks like to reject Him is to say, what gives you the right? Who do you think you are,
23:24: Jesus? Those villages have already asked it, and they've turned Him away.
23:30: And so here to His disciples, He pulls back the veil a bit on His identity and says, here's who I am.
23:36: You want to know what gives me the right? All things have been given to me by my
23:42: Father, says Jesus. If that's true, church, which
23:49: I believe it is, Scripture declares it to be true, then how many of you know that you ought to be making a big deal about Jesus?
23:57: All things are His. All things given to the Son by the Father. And further, no one knows the
24:03: Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son. Jesus here designates
24:08: Himself as the key to knowing the Father God, the Almighty. I'm the one that knows
24:15: Him. You can come through me. And He declares that He can choose to reveal the Father to anyone
24:20: He wants, His choice. He has all power and all authority and all access to the Father. So bear with me while I give you a cheesy illustration to explain how in the world does the
24:31: Son have access to the Father. Imagine I get home from work one evening to find a random 20 -something dude rifling through my fridge.
24:38: Can you guys picture that happening at your house? As we're about to tussle, my son walks out of the back hallway and introduces this intruder as his friend.
24:50: And suddenly this father accepts this once random stranger as a friend of my son.
25:00: Hmm. See where that's going? Now he's welcome in my home. Why? Because he came through a relationship with my son.
25:10: The Father welcomes us into the household, rather the Son welcomes us into the household of His Father.
25:16: He knows the Father, and He can bring others into the family. That's how we've arrived in a relationship with a
25:25: Father, or you're pretending to have one. That's the only way to relate to the
25:30: Father, is to come through the Son. Otherwise there's going to be a tussle. He's going to see you as an imposter.
25:40: Why can Jesus offer us ultimate rest? Because all things are at His disposal, and because all things have been handed over to Him by His Father, and He has a pretty great relationship with the
25:51: Almighty God. Jesus is the center of the church because Jesus is the one who makes the church.
25:58: We're a church because of Him. We are a gathering of those coming to the Father through the
26:05: Son by the convicting and revealing power of the Holy Spirit. That's what it means to be a church.
26:10: Again, the Trinitarian, the Trinity in force, empowering and moving to forge a people for His glory.
26:22: So the call to ultimate rest is available to all who will humble themselves. And Jesus is qualified to make the call to us based on His resources available and His relationship with the
26:33: Father. And in the last three verses we see the final movement of the text, the call to ultimate rest, verses 28 through 30.
26:41: Here we see Jesus declare in the record of Scripture, recorded for centuries of people to read, these three glorious and beautiful and powerful words.
26:51: I want them to resonate in your heart as I say them, come to me. Jesus saying to you, come to me.
27:00: Let those opening three words hit you with the force that they are meant to convey. Jesus calls people to Himself, not to something else, not to ourselves.
27:13: The call is not internal, go find yourself. The call isn't to go do stuff.
27:18: The call isn't to a puzzle or a riddle to be smart enough to solve. The call isn't to academic rigor.
27:24: And the call isn't even to a lifestyle. Live this way. Is that what
27:30: He says? Live for me? Is that what He says? He says, come to me.
27:37: That is the call. Come to Jesus. The call, come to a person.
27:43: And I ask you with all sincerity, church, have you gone over to Jesus? Have you?
27:51: I think it's quite possible that some of us in this room have been standing a ways off observing Him, watching
27:56: Him, maybe even seeking to emulate Him, maybe admiring Him from a distance, maybe trying to figure
28:02: Him out. And there's a season for that, but then there's a time to just go to Jesus. Just go.
28:09: I would fear that there may be some in this room who have even been working for Him without ever getting close enough to an interview.
28:16: He's never hired you. You didn't go to an interview. You just started working for Him.
28:24: That's weird. Imagine a boss showing up, and you're just kind of like working in your office, and he's like, who are you?
28:31: Not even drawing a paycheck, right? Just working for the company here. Never got an interview.
28:37: You never came to Him. Some have worked for Him their entire lives, and He will say, I never knew you. I never knew you.
28:44: Why? Because they never came to Him. They never responded to this call. Come to me.
28:51: So go to Jesus now. He is here. He is right here right now in reality.
28:57: Maybe this moment in the middle of a sermon on May 19th of 2024, someone here will hear this call and recognize
29:04: His voice, not Don's voice, His voice. And in the quiet of your own mind and heart, you will go to Jesus now to find the ultimate rest for your soul.
29:12: Go to Him with hand outstretched like a little child. You are the receiver.
29:19: You are not the giver. You are the weak, and He is the strong. You are the weary and burdened, and He is the rest giver.
29:29: I'm getting a little ahead of myself here because the call isn't all the way here yet. The call is to come to Him, and the call is to everyone, and at face value,
29:38: Jesus seems to limit His call, right? He's already said it is people who come like little children that the kingdom is revealed to, but He also seems to only call another category, the weary and heavily burdened people.
29:52: Sounds limiting, but let me just suggest to you this is not a very high hurdle. It doesn't take a lot to get over that one.
30:00: I qualify, do you? Do you qualify? Heavy? Weary? Heavily burdened?
30:06: Nobody has lived under the sun, S -U -N, without feeling weary, without carrying a heavy load.
30:13: Rather than limiting the pool, He is rather defining what it means to be human. What is humanity? We are the weary ones.
30:20: We are the burdened ones. Harnessed and strapped to loads we cannot bear.
30:27: We cannot carry. None of this nonsense about He won't give you more than you can bear, He won't give you more than you can handle.
30:34: No, He's gracious, too, so that you turn to Him and give the load over to Him. Do you know what
30:39: I'm talking about? It's kind of a nonsensical thing. Oh, He won't give you more than you can handle.
30:44: No, I've been there. Those are the best moments of my life because those are the moments where I'm at the end of myself.
30:53: Blowing snot bubbles on the floor, face down in the carpet, going, I can't stand this anymore.
30:58: I can't keep going. I need you. Not Jesus as my co -pilot.
31:05: Oh, Jesus, take the wheel, right? No, but you know what I'm saying.
31:11: Because many of you have been there. Where you just say, I can't anymore. We are the weary ones.
31:18: We are the burdened ones. Exhausted while still pulling our way up the hill day after day, making a little progress, wake up the next day, pull the load a little bit further, go to sleep, wake up the next morning, pull a little further, and we've never seen the summit.
31:35: You feel that? Never seen the summit. Is there a light at the center of the tunnel? I haven't seen it. Not in my own strength,
31:41: I haven't. And Jesus breaks into that kind of weariness, breaks into that kind of toil, breaks into our monotony and our futility, our sweat of the brow work with a promise.
31:55: If you're tired enough to ask for help, and if you realize you cannot carry your burden alone, and if you come to Him with the trust of a little child, church,
32:07: He will give you rest. He will give you rest. This is either the greatest of deceptions ever, and Jesus is the head of the largest lie ever perpetuated, or He can and will give us rest.
32:25: Either Jesus is a narcissistic megalomaniac, or He has the right and authority to offer rest to any and all who humble themselves and recognize their plight and come running to Him for help.
32:40: And we may be tempted to think of this rest as pie in the sky and the sweet by and by. After this life is over, then we will get rest.
32:47: That's the stuff of heaven, lounging on clouds and napping for several thousand years and then hitting the links with our heavenly golf clubs, right?
32:56: I'll rest when I die. I hear people say, I see it on bumper stickers, I see it on t -shirts, but Jesus is not merely offering rest from our toils and rest from our burdens in the new heavens and the new earth, although that'll be glorious, right?
33:09: But the easing of our weariness and lightening of our load begins when we come to Him for help.
33:16: That's when the rest begins. That's when the hope begins, a living hope. When you come to Him, He says
33:22: He will give you a yoke. Now, there's an irony in here, and we miss the humor. There's something that's funny in Him saying,
33:29: I'm gonna give you a yoke, take my yoke upon you. Yokes and rest don't go together. They don't.
33:36: Not like pillows and blankets go with rest. A yoke is a tool of work and not an implement of rest.
33:42: What might seem to make more sense to our ears would be if Jesus said in verse 29, take my blanket upon you and I will give you rest.
33:50: Or take my pillow upon you and I will give you rest. Rest for your souls. But He doesn't.
33:57: His rest is not to remove us from this place of work and toil, but His gift to us is a yoke.
34:04: And you go, oh good, not an egg yoke. No, this is a farm implement. A yoke is an instrument of lightening a load.
34:12: An ox pulling a wagon would be glad to be fitted with a yoke. If he could speak to you, he'd say thanks because a yoke means somebody else, another ox is going to come along and share the load.
34:22: It's going to no longer be pulling alone. I've illustrated this before, but a yoke was a wooden implement, instrument used to enable multiple animals to pull a load together, to multiply their force together, or at least add their force together.
34:37: It doesn't do to have one horse or one ox pulling to the right and the other pulling left.
34:44: A yoke is rigid and holds the two oxen or donkeys or horses together, forcing them to work together while they share the load.
34:52: You can see there in the picture, the yoke is the piece of wood that is keeping those two guys from getting too close to each other or too far apart.
35:03: So this call to ultimate rest is a call to take up the yoke that Jesus gives us to learn from Him, to become
35:11: His life students. And Jesus promises that He is gentle and lowly here in this text. We went through that book a couple of years ago and I do commend it.
35:18: If you haven't read the book, Gentle and Lowly, it's good. I can't get into all the depths of it, but what that phrase means here is
35:24: His heart is for His people. He is kind. He is merciful. He is gracious and full of love for us in giving us this yoke.
35:31: It requires faith to take on this yoke with Him because taking up His yoke means trusting
35:39: Him with our burdens, trusting Him with our weariness, trusting Him with our efforts, and really, ultimately, yielding our plan to Him.
35:50: The burdens are our self -efforts, our twisted up sinful baggage, our pride, and even the idols that weigh us down, and we must drop those to take on His yoke.
35:59: And He slides His neck in and begins to pull with us when we come to Him as weary and heavy laden, as children saying,
36:09: I need you. Help me. Save me. Rescue me.
36:16: His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. Christ is with us in our work, church.
36:22: He is with us in our rest. He is with us in the dark nights of the soul. He is with us during the crunch time when our boss is breathing down our neck with deadlines.
36:30: He is with us when corporate is making really dumb decisions. He is with us when we're up late at night praying for a wayward child.
36:37: He is there pulling with us. He is there when the accuser Satan whispers in our ear, are you sure you're okay with Christ?
36:44: You sure you have enough faith? If you loved Jesus, you would never...
36:49: He loves to accuse us, doesn't He? Here you are, having done it again, whatever it is,
36:58: He's there. Christ is there with us. The primary and most fundamental way this rest hits me is when it comes to my salvation.
37:05: I'm not worried, church. Jesus has done it. I don't fear hell.
37:12: Jesus has saved me. I don't worry if I'm getting it all right because guess what? I'm not.
37:19: I'll tell you, I'm not getting it all right. And yet He has called me to rest and He has promised that rest ultimately.
37:28: This frees me up to not take myself too seriously and it frees me up to not take you too seriously.
37:35: I don't take politicians seriously at all and I take celebrities even less seriously than I take politicians.
37:42: I thought that would get a laugh or two, but I don't know. But maybe it's not even that funny because we all agree.
37:50: This freedom to worry less comes from trust in Jesus. He gives rest to my soul.
37:57: He is here pulling with me. And trust me when I say that if I'm yoked to Jesus and I'm together with Him, that's not equal.
38:08: That's not equal. How many of you know that if you're yoked next to Jesus, the work isn't distributed evenly?
38:15: Rest for my soul? It's like my feet aren't even touching the ground as He pulls me along.
38:22: We have seen the call to Sabbath rest. A couple weeks ago we saw the risk of rest last week and now we see the promise of ultimate rest.
38:32: And three potential applications stood out to me this week that I would commend to you to consider. The first is coming from the text and that's just be like little children.
38:41: Be like little children. God is not against. We twist things up and the evangelical church has gotten a little bit backwards and twisted up and sideways and kind of jammed up over academic pursuits.
38:55: We're not against academic pursuits. God is not against academic pursuits. He's not against going to seminary. He's not against going to Bible college.
39:02: He's not against engaging your mind and growing. He's against arrogance and unfortunately those often go together and that's the problem, right?
39:13: It's where arrogance and academic pursuits come together that's the problem. When we pride ourselves in being better than each other and having more knowledge than one another, that's where we go sideways.
39:26: But God is gracious to reveal the truth that we need to those who come with humbled dependence. Be one of those people who regularly rehearses your own weakness and your own neediness.
39:40: Become acquainted with your weaknesses. Our culture is constantly bombarding us with false messages that say things like trust yourself, you've got this, believe in yourself and building our self -esteem is a fool's errand.
39:54: That's not what you need. You don't need to just believe more in yourself. You need to come to the end of yourself and run to him like a little child.
40:03: Come as little children who haven't grown up enough to even consider how they feel about themselves. How many of you know that most toddlers don't introspect very much?
40:12: I don't sit around and say, mother, what am I here for? And what is my purpose and what is my value?
40:20: They just know that they're hungry and they scream about it. They run to mom or dad for some food, not much introspection there, just a lot of asking because they know they have a need and they can't meet it.
40:33: So they come running. Be like little children, church. Second, trust in Jesus.
40:41: Verse 27 reminds us who he is. He has all authority. He has all things. He has all truth, all power given to him by his father and he has access to the father.
40:50: He is the mediator, the only mediator, the one mediator between God and humanity, the one that can touch both of us and he has the power to bring any he chooses into his father's home.
41:01: Consider whether or not your life is revolving around King Jesus. Is he your savior?
41:06: Is he your king? Do you love him? Do you trust him enough to take up his yoke?
41:15: The third thing, rest in his arms. He offers ultimate rest for your souls.
41:23: Hear his call this morning. Are you laboring under a heavy load? Let him give you his yoke and watch him take care of the heavy lifting.
41:32: You're not alone if you have come to Jesus Christ. Rest in him. Change your mindset from living for him to living with him.
41:40: A yoke is an implement of shared labor. Jesus doesn't call me into any work that he doesn't enter with me.
41:46: He doesn't call me to any suffering alone. I don't plow a single row that he doesn't plow with me.
41:54: The ultimate rest is, of course, one of hope for a future without sin, without futility, without monotony, without this world system in opposition.
42:04: But even in this life, I am now no longer pulling the plow alone because I pull with Jesus.
42:13: And even this truth makes my burdens light. There are present momentary afflictions and I do not walk through them alone.
42:25: And you don't need to either. So if you've asked Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior and you're at peace with others in this church, then
42:32: I encourage you to come to the tables to get your metaphorical sippy cup this morning. Come like children.
42:40: Come to those tables to the reminder that there is an ultimate rest for your souls.
42:47: If you're in Christ, you've already entered it. It isn't a rest that's coming for you one day in the future.
42:52: It's a rest you're being called to live into now because God in Christ has removed the toughest work that a human could ever try to endeavor.
43:01: The work to try to reconcile yourself to God is gone. He's done it.
43:07: It is finished. Come to those tables to remember it is finished. It has been done for us.
43:15: So come to the tables and remember His yoke is easy, church, and His burden is light.
43:21: Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much just for a series contemplating and considering rest, just for the way that these texts and these passages have washed over my soul in a way that reminds me of my neediness before you.
43:38: Father, I pray that you would help us to engage more in a cadence and a routine of what that rest can mean for us, a reminder that we are not enough, we are needy before you, and we come to these tables each week as a reminder of that neediness, not something that we can obtain in ourselves, not pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps, fixing ourselves, cleaning up our act, getting it all together, being enough.
44:03: Even as our world teaches us to think and to conceive of ourselves as enough, we're not.
44:13: We are beggars at your feet, and you are gracious and merciful to rescue.
44:21: So Father, I pray that that would press on our hearts and on our minds this week, that we would come to you like little children, we would trust
44:27: Jesus, we would honor you with the way we live, which is a way of neediness before you.
44:36: Thank you for this church, I thank you for the opportunity that we have now to come to these tables to remember and reflect on the great sacrifice that's been given for us.
44:45: And I ask that you would walk with us through this week, remembering and hoping and looking forward to that day of ultimate rest.