Rest

For those of you that don't know me, my name is Doug McClinsey, and I serve here on staff as a discipleship director. And this morning we're gonna be continuing in our sermon series, Habits of Grace. So if you have a Bible on you, open up to Matthew chapter 11, verse 25, 'cause we're gonna be there in just a second. Now this morning we're focusing on the idea of rest. And I wanna ask you, what comes into your mind when you hear the word rest? Maybe for you it's a good vacation or it's a lot of time off at your job, or if you're like me and a young parent, it's a lot more sleep, which is lacking in this season of life. We all have an idea of rest. And if we're being honest, though, rest is something that is, sometimes it seems elusive, right? Even for many of us in this room, when we hear the word rest, something deep in our soul says, "I want that, I need that, but I can't seem to find it." You go on the vacations and they're nice, but they don't give you the rest that you really deeply crave. You use up all the time off at your job, but it still doesn't do the trick. Rest is something that seems elusive. And that is just talking about physical rest, vacations and time off. But the truth is, is that there is a deeper rest that we all long for, that we hope in. There's a way of life that we believe will bring rest and peace to our souls that even the best vacations can't provide. Because the truth is, is that in this life, our souls can be easily restless. We struggle with sin, we walk through suffering, we experience grief and darkness and despair. Rest is something that, in the complexities of our lives, seems elusive. We're always chasing it, but can never find it. Thankfully though, Jesus has some things to say about rest. And this morning we're gonna look at what Jesus says about rest and learn where true rest can be found and what it looks like for our lives. We're gonna be in Matthew chapter 11, verse 25 through 12:14. And from that passage of scripture, we're gonna learn this simple truth. Jesus provides true rest. Jesus provides true rest. And to learn this main idea, we're gonna look at two smaller ideas, the first being this. Jesus offers rest. Jesus actually offers us rest. So let's look now at his offer of rest. Look with me in Matthew 11:25 through 30. "At that time, Jesus said, 'I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.' All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." And here's Jesus' offer. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble and heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Here we see the Son of God giving us an invitation to rest. But what kind of rest is he actually talking about? What does his invitation of rest actually look like? How do we get it? Well, to answer those questions, let's unpack piece by piece Jesus' offer here. First he says, "Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." So Jesus' offer here is to the weary and to the burdened, something that we can all find ourselves living in. But I wanna ask, who specifically are the weary and burdened that Jesus is addressing in these verses? Now, commentators have given us two ideas of who Jesus could be talking to here. First is, we could see this as referring to those who were weary and burdened because of the excessive demands of the practice of Judaism in Jesus' day. As we're gonna see in a moment, the Pharisees and religious leaders of this time demanded from the people more than God's law required. And so Jesus might very well be addressing those who suffered under the crushing weight of legalistic Judaism. That's one possibility. The other is that Jesus might be making a general statement referring to the overall burdens of life. Because the truth is, is that you and I can find ourselves weary and burdened for a variety of reasons. Thankfully, though, commentators say that both of those groups of people should be in view here, the audience of Jesus' day under the crushing weight of legalistic Judaism, and those weary and burdened for any reason in life. Church, let's take note here that Jesus invites the weary and he invites the burdened to find rest in him. But not only do we see Jesus' invitation to rest in these verses, we also see him elaborating on this invitation. And as he does, he shows us the kind of life that actually leads us to a place of rest for our souls. Jesus again says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." So there's two statements here that Jesus makes that I want to just kinda focus in on for a second. He uses this word yoke, remember that word, yoke. It's an important word in our passage. And then he says this phrase, "Learn from me." So yoke and learn from me. These two words kind of give us a pathway into the kind of rest that Jesus offers. So I wanna first ask, what is a yoke? Let me make it clear that a yoke here is not the yolk that was in your eggs this morning when you had breakfast. So if you're thinking about that, that is not what Jesus is talking about. There were two different types of yoke in this time. First was an animal yoke. It was a yoke that joined two animals together in agricultural work. And you'll see an example of this here on the screen. So we see two oxen here with this yoke that joined them together that was meant to guide them and keep them together as one as they carried out whatever work they were being asked to participate in. The second was a human yoke, and here we see a human yoke. This guy has a yoke across his neck that was meant to hold the burden of carrying these buckets. A yoke was meant to be something to ease labor, ease work. One New Testament scholar, RT France, said that, "A yoke was intended to ease the discomfort in carrying a heavy load." So that's a simple definition for us to remember. A yoke was intended to ease the discomfort in carrying a heavy load. But then he goes on to say this, listen to this. "But it also symbolized obedience and the acceptance of responsibility. Jews would eventually use the language of yoke to refer to the demands of the Old Testament law upon people's obedience." And then he says this, "An obligation freely accepted by putting on the yoke of the Torah." So in the context of our passage, the Old Testament law of God was seen as a yoke. It was seen as something to be freely accepted, something to put on that was meant to guide people in the ways of God. But the Pharisees and the religious leaders of this time took what was meant to be a good yoke that the people of God were supposed to wear in following God, they took that yoke and they made it into a burden. They made it into a yoke that was crushing by putting excessive demands on the people that God's law didn't require. And it only produced weariness in the lives of God's people. But Jesus here, what he does is he offers a different yoke than the religious leaders of his day. He offers something that we can put on ourselves willingly and find the rest of God. His yoke, his teachings, his way is the path to rest. Jesus came and he gave a true and proper interpretation of the Old Testament law, and he fulfilled it in his life, his ministry and his work. And he came to show us the way to have rest for our souls. Jesus says here that we're invited to take his yoke upon us, and we're to learn from him. We're to take his way upon us and we're to submit to him. What Jesus is doing here is he is calling people into discipleship, to following him, to embracing his ways. And this is the means, this is the path to finding the rest that Jesus offers and is referring to here. So church, if you wanna find rest in Jesus, come to him and learn from him. The Christian life is a life where we come to Jesus to learn from him and to obey him. And learning from Jesus leads to rest for our souls. That might seem like a paradox, the idea that learning and obeying leads to a place of rest. But the truth is, is that the way of Jesus leads our souls to the place they were made for, which is right relationship and fellowship with God. And if we wanna find rest for our souls, we need to take Jesus' yoke upon us and learn from him in our lives. The life of discipleship leads us to a place of rest. And we should learn from Jesus because he says here that he is gentle and humble in heart. Jesus is a gentle and a humble savior in God, and he is someone that we can be safe with. I've heard the term gentle described as strength under control. Strength under control. Jesus, in this chapter, he is depicted by Matthew as someone with divine authority. And because he's gentle and humble, he doesn't use his strength as God for our detriment. Rather, he uses it for our good. He's a humble savior who considers the interests of those that he serves, and he's someone that we can trust. And knowing that Jesus is gentle and humble in heart, what it does is it makes this invitation to come to him and find rest, it makes it sweet. It makes this idea of learning from Jesus and following him, taking his yoke upon us, it makes it sweet and desirable because of who he is. He is a savior who is gentle and humble in heart, and he leads his people by his gentleness and by his humility. Learning from Jesus leads to rest because following him is not burdensome. Jesus says, "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Rather than this being a yoke that crushes the one who wears it, Jesus' yoke, his way, it's easy and it's light. Now, this doesn't mean that following Jesus is always gonna be, you know, rainbows and butterflies. The reality is, is that an easy yoke is different from an easy life. Following Jesus will require sacrifice at times. It will require us to make hard and costly decisions. But we're doing it with a Savior that has an easy yoke. And what that means for us is that as we follow him, unlike the religious leaders of his day, Jesus will not weigh his people down with religious requirements that will lead to a place of misery and despair. As one commentator I read reminded me of, Jesus now lives in His people through the Holy Spirit. And because of that, the very commands that he calls us to obey that are a part of his easy and light yoke, those commands he actually empowers us to obey, so we're not left alone. Jesus leads us to a place of rest because he leads us into the life that we were ultimately made for with God. This is Jesus' invitation to us. This is his offer. Come to him, learn from him. He is gentle and humble. He will give us rest. So friends, let's receive his offer. Maybe you're here and you come from a tradition of legalism. You can relate to what the Jews were experiencing here in the first century. You come from a religious tradition that required things from you that weren't actually in scripture, but you told you had to do those things for righteousness. And maybe those rules left you feeling burdened as you tried to follow Christ. Now, rules are sometimes necessary and good, but perhaps you were in a context of spiritual malpractice. Come to Jesus and find rest, because in following Jesus and taking on his yoke, he will lead you into what obedience and righteousness truly look like, which will bring rest to your soul. Or maybe you're here and you suffer from the weights of anxiety or depression or a host of other mental and emotional challenges. You have a Savior this morning who is gentle and humble in heart. Come to him and experience him as that. Learn from him, lay down your burdens on him, pour out your heart to him. He can provide the rest that you long for. And he's able to teach you how to walk through these challenges as you take on his easy and his light yoke. Or maybe you're here and you're weary from the burden of your sins. You see them clearly, you see the consequences of your sins. Come to Jesus, run to him. He can give your soul rest this morning. Because in his death and resurrection, he has done all of the work necessary for your sins to be cleansed and for your soul to finally find rest. Or maybe you're here and you're just going through burdens related to your job. You have a demanding boss, you have deadlines you have to meet, you have a multitude of people that you have to serve, you have unknowns about your future. Come to Jesus, bring these things to him. Let him teach you how to navigate these challenges and provide rest to your soul. Or maybe you're here and you're facing challenges in your parenting or in your marriage or in your relationships. Come to Jesus and receive his offer of rest. Husbands and wives, take the yoke of Jesus on yourself and let him teach you how to be the spouse that you're called to be. Moms and dads, take the yoke of Jesus on yourself and learn from him and let him lead you as you navigate all of the complexities of parenting. Bring these things to the Lord, let his Word be your guide, and find rest in him. Or maybe finally, you're here and you've been looking for rest in all the wrong places. You've spent your days on a journey looking for rest from substances or relationships or your career or your education or the approval of others. And as you've looked for this, your soul's desire for rest has never been met, and you've been left wanting, burdened and exhausted. Receive Jesus' offer to rest this morning. And if you're here and you don't know Christ but would admit that you're longing to find rest, know that true rest is only found in him. Or maybe you're here and you've walked away from the Lord, believing the lie that rest could be found elsewhere. Run to him afresh this morning, knowing that the rest that you've been looking for is only going to be found in him, and he will gladly receive you. Run to him for rest. Whatever it might look like for you today, you can come to Jesus for rest for your soul. Take his yoke upon you, learn from him, find rest. Jesus provides true rest. We see this idea in this first principle, that Jesus offers rest to us. But we're gonna see the truth that Jesus provides true rest in one more principle, and it's this. Jesus is the Lord of Rest. Jesus is the Lord of Rest. So look with me at Matthew chapter 12, verses one through two. "At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, 'Look, your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.'" So in the very next section here, Matthew leads us into two occurrences of Jesus engaging with the Pharisees on the Sabbath day. And we shouldn't see this as a coincidence. So Jesus just gave this offer of rest in Matthew 11, but now what we see is Jesus engaging with the Pharisees on the day of rest, on the Sabbath day, which was the regular day each week that the Jews would rest as a way to worship the Lord. In the Old Testament, the Sabbath had its roots in the Book of Genesis and creation because we see in Genesis 1 and 2 Moses writing his creation narrative as God working six days in creation, resting on the seventh. And we know that God is not like us, that he gets weary and he needs rest. And while I don't have time to go into all that Moses was teaching when he wrote about God resting on the seventh day, let's know for our time this morning that what happened in Genesis actually was the foundation for the pattern of the life of Israel. Because later when God gave Moses the 10 commandments to give to Israel, one of those commandments was to observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy. And in that command, it was grounded in the fact that God, in Genesis 1, worked six days in creation, rested on the seventh. Israel was meant to have that pattern as a people to worship the Lord rightly and to set themselves apart as a nation belonging to God. So just know that the Sabbath day was a regular, integral pattern of the life of Israel. And in our account here in Matthew, Jesus' disciples go through a grain field, they pick heads of grain, and they eat on the Sabbath day. Which actually wasn't wrong to do. But what happens here is the Pharisees, they immediately step in and they accuse Jesus' disciples of breaking the law and they accused them of doing what shouldn't be done on the Sabbath. Do you remember how I just said that in this time the religious leaders put demands and expectations and regulations on the people that were burdensome? There was this heavy yoke. Well, we see here an example of that. Scholars point out that in this time, the scribes and the Pharisees and the rabbinical tradition of this day, they were so meticulous about making sure that Israel didn't do anything that could possibly break the Sabbath, anything that could possibly be seen as work, that they developed 39 different categories that were outside of the Bible, 39 different categories of activities that they deemed as unlawful, things that should be avoided, things that should be seen as work that should not be done on the Sabbath day. And so because of that, the Pharisees here are condemning Jesus' disciples for doing things that they considered unlawful, but it wasn't unlawful at all. It was only unlawful according to the yoke of their tradition. Jesus responds to this. So let's look at his response, and then let's look actually at what happens immediately after. Matthew 12:3 through 14. "He answered, 'Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven't you read in the law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would've not condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.' Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, 'Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?' He said to them, 'If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.' Then he said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus." So here Jesus does a few different things. Jesus, in response to the Pharisees, he brings up two different situations in the Old Testament, one from the life of David and the other of the priests serving in the temple. And by using both of these examples, Jesus shows that, one, in the life of David, David did something that technically was unlawful to do, but the scriptures never held David guilty because he was in need. He was hungry, him and his men were hungry and they were given food to eat that usually was considered unlawful. But in this case, David was declared innocent. The priests of the temple had to regularly serve and work on the Sabbath day to maintain and operate the worshiping life of Israel, so they were not held guilty even though they worked on the Sabbath. Jesus brings these two stories into the account to tell the Pharisees this. He's the one that correctly interprets scripture. And he himself is the Lord of the Sabbath. In other words, Jesus is the one who gets to call the shots. He's the one who has the authority to determine what should and shouldn't be done on the Sabbath day because he's the Lord of the Sabbath and he's the one who shows us the true interpretation of scripture. And so because of that, his disciples are innocent. And in his authority, Jesus shows us here that the Sabbath itself should have never been held in competition with the good of people. In this first situation, Jesus says to the Pharisees, "If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would've not condemned the innocent." You see, the priority of the Pharisees on the Sabbath was strict adherence to their interpretation of the law rather than what was for the good of people. And we see this clearly played out in the situation with the man who had the withered hand. At the synagogue, the Pharisees asked Jesus whether or not it's actually lawful to heal someone on the Sabbath. And Jesus, in response, silences their question by stating that they would actually, if one of their sheep fell into a pit on the Sabbath day, they would actually get into the pit, lift it out because they were showing compassion to that sheep. Well, if they're willing to do that, isn't a person of much more value than a sheep? And so because of that, Jesus says it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath. You see, the Pharisees miss the fact that on the Sabbath day, this day was meant for the wellbeing and flourishing of God's people. The yoke that they created, it was not easy, it was not light, and it never led God's people into true Sabbath rest. And yet what we see here is Jesus bringing clarity. We see the one who offers us rest correcting the Pharisees on how to observe the day of rest. The one who has all authority teaches what is truly important on the Sabbath day. And that was the wellbeing of other people, the flourishing of God's people. This is what should have taken priority. But the truth is, though, Jesus didn't come merely to show Israel how the Sabbath was meant to be practiced. And he didn't come to give you and I some thoughts on how we can rest, ultimately. He ultimately came to provide a better, a lasting Sabbath rest for the people of God. The author of Hebrews picks up on this idea in Hebrews chapter four, verses nine through 11. "There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience." There remains a better eternal Sabbath rest for the people of God. And Jesus came to provide that rest. You see, apart from Jesus, there is no rest. Apart from Jesus, we strive, but we strive toward death. Apart from Jesus, we work but we work in vain. Apart from Jesus, we are restless people in our sin. We long for rest, but we can't find it. In our sin, we're separated from God and therefore removed from the true rest for our souls. But Jesus Christ came to provide us true rest. Our gentle and humble Savior would eventually go to a cross, taking our sin, our shame, our guilt, everything that kept you and I from the rest of God, and he canceled it. He wiped it out. And through his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, he would satisfy the wrath of God and purchase a way for us to enter God's eternal and true and perfect and lasting rest. Jesus Christ worked for you and I so that you and I could rest in him forever. And for those who believe in Jesus, who receive this gentle and humble Savior into their lives, this Sabbath rest is given, rest and salvation in this life and rest to come in the presence of God forever, where we will be satisfied and at rest with him. So church, let's rest in Christ now. But remember that in Jesus, there is a Sabbath rest to come. This is the rest that our Savior provides to us. With that being said, let's take a few minutes just to think about this idea of Sabbath practically. Now, Christians and churches, they will differ on how to view the Sabbath. Some will say that the Sabbath is still an abiding command that the people of God are supposed to obey today. Others will say that the Sabbath command was fulfilled in Jesus and it's not something binding on Christians today. Now, I'm not gonna go into the weeds of all of that, but what I'm gonna argue for this morning is what I've heard some call a Sabbath principle. A Sabbath principle, because it is good and wise for us to make a routine to pursue Sabbath rest in Jesus, knowing that God intends for us to have rest in him that will lead to our flourishing. So let's consider some things practically. First, let your practice of rest be holy. Israel's practice of Sabbath was meant to be holy and set apart. So we should refrain from work and we should worship the Lord by resting in him in a holy way. And to do that in a holy way, here's a few thoughts. Pursue holy things that will lead to your rest. Pursue things that will actually lead you into worshiping the Lord. Examples of this could be being with the people of God, going for a prayer walk, listening to some good Christian music, finding some extra time and space in your week to get away in a quiet place and meditate on God's Word. Whatever that might look like, be intentional with pursuing holy things that will lead to your rest. Another thought is take a day off. Now this might seem like, really basic, but for some of us, this is something we need to hear. Because for some of us, we might fall into that category of workaholism, where whether it's paid or unpaid work, we're always working, we're always doing some sort of activity. We can never sit still. We can't sit in silence. We can never rest. My encouragement to you this morning is take a day off and devote that day to the Lord. Because the truth is that the world, it still revolves without us. It still will go on even if we have to take a sick day, even if we have to take a day off. Our work, our activities, our ministry, our service, it will survive without us always having to engage in it. So trust the Lord with your work and take a day off. Next is pick a day. Be intentional with picking a day. For a lot of us, it might be Sunday, but for some of us, due to other work demands, we might have to be intentional with picking a day other than Sunday that we can devote to the Lord. But let our practice of rest, let's let it be holy. Next is pursue what's gonna lead to your flourishing. Pursue what leads to your flourishing. Now this is connected with what I just said, but let's remember that Jesus prioritized the wellbeing of people. So do things that are for your good, that you will enjoy. Eat a good meal, enjoy time with good friends, read a book that will feed your soul. Refrain from doing things that will drain you. Next is flee legalism. The Pharisees, they were upholding regulations that, many of them were actually outside of the revealed will of God for the Sabbath. And this led to unnecessary burdens on God's people. The New Testament does not give Christians or churches Sabbath commands like the Old Testament did for what should and shouldn't be done. So let's be on guard to not be legalistic about this. Let's just focus in on what will lead me to resting in the Lord. Let's make that our priority. Next is be devoted to the good of others. Be devoted to the good of others. Jesus was concerned with the wellbeing of the man with a withered hand, and he rebuked the Pharisees for not caring about the wellbeing of others. So as we rest in God, let's keep space in our lives to be available to do good to others as opportunity arises, because our rest in the Lord should not prohibit us from helping others and caring about their good. And then finally, remember the Gospel. Remember the Gospel. Remember that Sabbath rest has been provided for your soul. So as you wrestle with sin and you feel the weight of it, as you go through your week fighting restlessness and despair and striving for the approval of other people, take Sabbath time to rest in Christ and in his redemptive work. Remember Jesus and reflect upon what He's done for you, to lead you to a place of flourishing, a place of salvation, a place of rest that he has provided. Jesus provides us with true rest. That is what we learned from our texts this morning. And rest is not elusive. Rest was given to us and made available to us in the coming of Jesus, in his death and resurrection on our behalf. So let's take heart today, friends, that we can find rest for our souls and we never have to search in vain, and we can take Jesus up on his invitation and we can run to him and find the rest that we truly long for and we deeply need, until the day where we're with him and we're resting in full. And what we're gonna do now is we're gonna do something unique to rest in the Lord. I'm gonna turn it back over to the campus pastors at all of our other campuses, and we're gonna observe a time of the Lord's Supper. So you would've received these elements as you walked in this morning. If you haven't, there's ushers around the auditorium. And if you need one, please raise your hand and let them know, and they'll come to you and provide that for you. So the Lord's Supper is described for us in 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11:23 says this. "For I receive from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'" Take the elements, and if you haven't already, please take off the top layer and remove the first element, which represents the broken body of our Lord. And as you have it in your hand, let's take a moment to pray. Father, thank you for the gift of your Son. Lord Jesus, thank you for your broken body that you willingly gave up and laid down so that we can find rest for our souls and rest from our sins. Thank you, Lord. Church, the body of Christ broken for you. Take and eat this morning. And if you haven't already, please remove the second layer to access the juice. In 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul continues. "In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.'" Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for your shed blood. Thank you that you lay down your life and shed your blood for the full atonement of our sins. And thank you that a day is returning where we will dine with you in your kingdom and we will enjoy you forever. So on this day, Lord, we rest in you and we thank you for your shed blood. Church, the blood of Christ poured out for you. Take and drink. Let's close with a final word of prayer this morning. Father, thank you for the rest that you offer to us. Jesus, thank you that when we are weary and burdened, you give us rest for our souls. And thank you that we can find that in you. So help us to do that, Lord, in all the complexities of this life. We love you Christ, and we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.