Sunday, July 9, 2023 PM

In creation. It's something that we see the whole idea of rest is present in the story of Noah. It is certainly the rest that God gave to Abraham and the patriarchs was resting in his promises. We looked at how strict the commandment of the Sabbath is, how broad it is in the life of Israel, not just the seventh day, not just the seventh day, but the seventh year, and many other Sabbaths that attended various feasts.

And we also considered the rest God promised to David, a rest that would be realized in his heir, in his son. And now we've come to the point where we need to think about Jesus as he comes and proclaims the gospel, the good news of the kingdom, and how he's going to take up the entire patchwork mantle of the covenants in the Old Covenant.

And he puts it on to himself and he wears that mantle and says, look here, this is what it means. So that's what we're going to do. Let's begin with a word of prayer. Father, I thank you so much for the night.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and to hear your name. Amen. Okay, so in Matthew chapter 11, we have the story of when John the Baptist was in prison. Does anybody remember why he was in prison?

Yeah, he said he told the king he couldn't just do whatever he wanted to, and he didn't like that very much. But more importantly, it's his wife who didn't like that very much, and she made sure that John got arrested.

Herod was kind of interested in John. He thought he was an interesting person, but his wife Herodias hated him, just wanted to kill him. And meanwhile, John the Baptist is languishing in prison and Jesus' ministry is proceeding apace.

And John, of course, had baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. But as he's languishing in prison, he sends a couple of his disciples to Jesus with a question. He wants to know, are you the coming one? Are you the Messiah?

Or are we looking for another? And Jesus has some things to say to those who were witnesses to that question. He wanted to talk about John the Baptist a little bit. And he quoted he talked about his own ministry in terms of the prophet Isaiah and just to strengthen John's faith.

But then he also talked about how John the Baptist was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. And in fact, that he is the greatest of all the prophets, the greatest of all the Old Covenant prophets, fulfilling the promises of the coming Elijah.

And then he said that the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. And by this, Jesus is not saying that the the Old Covenant that God made was was bad. He's just emphasizing how much better the New Covenant is.

And he had a little parable, a little analogy that he used to talk about the opposition of his critics to John. The same critics of John the Baptist were those who were criticizing Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus wanted to emphasize the fact that John and he, they were in agreement.

John the Baptist was the forerunner. He came proclaiming and saying, everyone get ready. The Messiah is coming. Repent. Prepare the way of the Lord. And Jesus was in him saying that the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the greatest prophet of old.

He wasn't saying that, hey, John and I are in disagreement. He and John were actually in agreement. John would have agreed with that. And the fact that they were both on the same side was clear by the same critics being against them both.

John the Baptist, the Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy, and the Children in the Marketplace

And Jesus said in verse 16 of Matthew 11, but to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions and saying, we played the flute for you but and you did not dance.

We mourn to you and you did not lament. A bunch of selfish petulant children saying, you know, this is the game we're playing and you're not playing. And so we want to play, we want to play a wedding.

Everybody celebrate, get up and dance. We want to play funeral. Everybody, you know, walk around and do the mourning thing. And complaining that John and Jesus would not dance to their tune. Verse 18, for John came neither eating nor drinking and they say, he has a demon.

He would not celebrate what they celebrated and they accused him of an awful thing, of being possessed by a demon. And then they wanted Jesus to mourn but Jesus would not lament what they lamented. See the marketplace?

Has the marketplace changed all that much today? Marketplace tells us, celebrate what we celebrate. Mourn what we mourn. We have no obligation. No obligation. Now that's what they say, the Son of Man came eating and drinking and they say, look, a glutton and a winebibber.

That's very, very particular to the Old Testament, to Mosaic law. The glutton and a winebibber, the glutton and a drunk, is the formulaic condemnation of a rebellious son who should be killed by the community.

In the Old Testament, there was a case law where you could bring, and of course, you know, I doubt it ever happened, but a mother and a father could bring a son before the town and say, our son is rebellious, he is a glutton and a winebibber, we can't do anything with him, he needs to be put to death.

He's a menace to society. Do you see what they're doing? They're pointing at Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Man, and they're saying, you are an unfaithful son, you deserve to die. Well hang on a second, who was the unfaithful son?

Who was the unfaithful son? They were. They were the unfaithful son and they were pointing at Christ as if he were the unfaithful son. And Jesus began to rebuke other cities who should have repented at all the signs and wonders that were given to them, but then prays to the Father and clarifies that even though these towns are fully accountable and fully responsible for their rejection of his revelation, Jesus now prays to the Father and recognizes that God revealing himself to men, that they may be saved, it's entirely of grace.

Notice what he says, verse 25, at that time Jesus answered and said, I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes, to infants.

Even so, Father, for so.

It seemed good in your sight, and a much more famous passage, and you may have it.

Memorized. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. Now listen to the Son, listen to what he says. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

We've been talking about rest, we've been talking about rest as that key theme of Sabbath, how the people were to rest on the seventh day in the seventh year and trust in the Lord for his provision, and even how the original Sabbath instruction was tied to the giving of bread from heaven.

Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Now when we think of rest, we're usually stretched out somewhere. Hammock, recliner, nap time, rest. But how does Jesus describe this rest?

Verse 29, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, 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. Take my yoke upon you. Now some of you know what a yoke is and some of you don't, but a yoke is a wooden beam that is crafted so that it can lay across the necks of two animals, and there are holes in the beam through which you put pins to keep the necks of the animals safely engaged with the big strong beam.

In the middle of the beam there's a ring that you hook up whatever you need. You need a plow, you need a cart, hook it up, and then you tell both animals pull together and you go where I tell you to go.

Jesus says take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Learn from me. So in the ancient Near East, when you needed to train up a new animal, you needed a new ox or you needed a new donkey or whatever you have in your yoke.

When you needed to train a new animal, you would take that animal and you would put it into the same yoke as your good and faithful expert animal, and they would be yoked together. But you did not then hook up your plow to the ring in the middle, but you hooked up your ring to your faithful steadfast animal, and you told that one to pull the weight, that one to pull the plow.

What's this other one doing over here that doesn't know anything yet? It's learning. It's learning. When Jesus says take my yoke upon you and learn from me, he is not crafting a metaphor in which he is the master dealing with his beasts of burden.

He's on the other side of the yoke. He's on the other side of the yoke. We have to learn from him. We have to learn from him. He's the one who does the work. He's the one who accomplishes what needs to be accomplished.

And in what way is this resting? Well, he does the work and we are with him in that work, but he's the one who's accomplishing it. But it's not only rest because he's the one doing the work and, you know, we're not really pulling it, but it's also rest, notice, because we're with him.

He is gentle. He is lowly in heart. And that's how we find rest for our souls. Our hearts are made for God and are restless until we find our rest in him. And there's only one way to God and that is through Christ.

So the rest for our souls is found by being with Christ and trusting in him to be the one who does the work for us. In this way, his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Now, who might he be talking to here in this passage when he says, come to me you who are, who labor and are heavy laden.

Who's he talking to? Might be some Pharisees, might be those who are very much ascribed to their way of doing things. Come unto me all you who labor.

And are heavy laden. Labor at all. They just do nothing but, you know, maybe.

Meditate or something. You know, that's not what he's saying. He's just talked about salvation. He's just talked about the Son revealing the Father. This is eternal life that they may know God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent, he says in John 17.

He's talking about salvation. He's talking about eternal life. And so that's what he, that's who he's talking to. Those who are laboring to make God happy with them, right? Those who are laboring and are heavy laden.

Oh, I can never be right with God. I can never do enough. I can never be enough. Jesus says come unto me. And now, after talking about rest and communion and being in a right relationship with God through Christ, unsurprisingly, the very next verse is about the Sabbath.

Jesus as the Rest of the Weary and the Lord of the Sabbath

Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath and his disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

Now, what did they do wrong? Can you see it? Okay, so they were, they were picking heads of grain off. They were harvesting on the Sabbath. Well, what else were they doing? Yeah, they're eating. Now, when you pluck heads of grain off a stalk, you do not pop them into your mouth right away.

Why? Because they're covered in a husk. So, how do you get the husk off? Now, they're threshing. When you thresh that grain in your hands and you rub it vigorously back and forth, you know what happens to that grain?

It gets a little warm and the salt from your hand is put into that grain. Oh, now you're cooking. There they are, harvesting and threshing and cooking all on the Sabbath day. Can you believe it? I think it's funny that the Pharisees were always hiding in a bush somewhere and they just jump out.

You're doing something wrong. And now, and of course, we saw how central the Sabbath is to the covenant that God made with Israel, so you can maybe understand why it's such a big deal to them. But they have totally misapprehended what the Sabbath is all about.

So, Jesus begins to teach them. Now, keep in mind what he said before about coming unto him and being a part of his yoke, communing with him. So, now let's look at verse 3. But he said to them, have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him?

What did David do? How he entered the house of God and ate the showbread, the bread of the presence, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests. Remember the story that David was on the run.

The plot against his life from King Saul was revealed. Jonathan came and warned his friend, and now David is on the run for his life. Only a small group of men with him. They didn't grab anything to eat.

David didn't eat, and they came by.

The town, only the priests were supposed to eat. And now, did David get.

Struck dead? No. Why was it okay for David to eat? We can give David a pass, right? Because he's the Lord's anointed. He's the Lord's anointed. Yeah, David's a really important person, and we see how much God has favored him.

Here's this anointed man of the Lord. So, maybe we'll give David a pass, but why the other guys? They're a bunch of ruffians. If you ever read about David's, some of David's mighty men, they're kind of ruff.

But why did they get to eat? Notice what it says, those who were with him. With him. What's Jesus' point? You're accusing my disciples of breaking the Sabbath because they're eating grain from this field.

How is it possible that they can break Sabbath? They're with me. Do you see it? Come unto me you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me. Be with me, that is rest.

They get accused of breaking the Sabbath, but he gives them the analogy of David and those who were with him. His disciples are with him. So, how can they break the Sabbath if they're with Christ? It's impossible.

Verse 5, or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and yet are blameless? Yet I say to you that in this place there is one greater than the temple.

So, what goes on in the in the temple on the seventh day? The priests get a day off? Nope, they're working. Anybody here ever butcher? Ooh, that's hard work. That is hard work. That is definitely breaking the Sabbath, but the priests are doing that inside the temple on the Sabbath day, and they're offering all kinds of sacrifices, doing this really, really hard labor.

And are they breaking the Sabbath? Are they in trouble? No. Why? Where are they? They're in the temple. So, and Jesus says, yet I say to you that in this place, here we stand in this field, there is one greater than the temple.

Who's he talking about? He's talking about himself, once again. How can his disciples break the Sabbath if they're with the fulfillment of David and the fulfillment of the temple, right? So, Christ is the one who brings us into right relationship with God and with one another in all the world around us.

So, how can we be breaking Sabbath if we're with him? Oh, we're with him. He's our rest. Not only that, remember that the Sabbath commandment is a household commandment. Remember that? That the head of the household was instructed, not you or your wife or your family or anybody who works for you or any of your animals.

You just shut it all down. You stay at home and everything right in its place, and you just rest. That was the original conception of the Sabbath command. Well, Jesus just announced where his household was, wherever he's at.

He's greater than the, he's greater than the temple, greater than the house. He is the house. He calls himself the temple. Destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up, correct? So, in Christ's household, he says in verse 7, but if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.

For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Means that he gets to say what it is, right? Well, he is the light of the world. He's the light of the word. He gets to say what it is. So, we check in with Christ to see what the Sabbath means.

And he was telling them, it's like, if you really understood the point.