There was an angry church member who rushed up to his minister and shouted “I phoned you Monday, but I couldn’t get you.”
The preacher explained that it was his day off.
“What? A day off? The devil never takes a day off!” he exclaimed with holier-than-thou indignation.
“That exactly right, ” said the minister, “and if I didn’t take any ‘time off,’ I’d be just like him!”
I think my wife would agree that I start to resemble the prince of darkness when I get overtired. (I know, start to resemble?….)
But do you know what?
Do you know what the baby Jesus brought with Him as he lie in His manger bed?
In Matthew 11 Jesus would say “Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
It’s a well-known saying, and we of course accept it to be true.
But we, as a whole, do not live it well.
When a person trusts Christ for salvation, he or she receives a deep, and settled, and confident peace, and a persons soul is no longer in conflict and upheaval, but now at rest.
Rest in the assurance and trust that all sins are now forgiven and a place has been prepared for us in heaven.
When you trust Christ, God gives you this rest. And I truly hope that you have received God’s rest, and know that to be true.
But God’s rest goes even deeper than that.
It’s true that when Jesus is talking about rest in Matthew 11, he was certainly talking about our eternal rest in Him.
And knowing what Christ did for us on the cross, we can rest assured of our future in eternity.
But what we will read about today is also another kind of rest that even believers have a much more difficult time embracing.
Many of us still lack God’s peace and rest when facing the trials and difficulties of this life.
F. B. Meyer talked about this problem in his book “The Christ Life for Your Life.”
He wrote, “There are tens of thousands of Christians who have got the first rest, but have not got the second. They could look death in the face without wavering, but they cannot look panic, disaster, bereavement, pain, or trial in the face without disquiet.”
He said that it should not be that way.
And he received an illustration of how it should be when he visited with D. L. Moody in Massachusetts, and Moody showed him a team of oxen.
He said he observed that whenever one of the oxen was being yoked in, the other ones, which might be on the far side of the farm yard, would come trotting over and stand right beside the first, ready to be yoked in also.
See this helped him to understand how Jesus indeed offers us rest. He wrote “Jesus (just the same as the ox) stands today with the yoke upon His shoulder. He calls to each one and says, ‘Come and share My yoke, and let us plow together the long furrow of your life. I will be a true yoke “fellow” to you. The burden shall be on Me.’”
So God has offered up His own Son to carry our burdens. Why don’t we give them to Him?
Strangely, I have noticed that vacations and holidays, even though they are designed for rest can be utterly exhausting. People get stressed out, and are rushing around, and pushing more and more, and we could really use rest is that second kind and I’ve heard many people say how glad they are that the Christmas season is over. All this “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” has worn them out.
We’re frazzled, and beat down, and depleted.
It’s a very emotional time. Issues with family, and finances, and relationships come up. People often find the time between Thanksgiving and New Years as being a time when they take stock of things. How their life is going. Where it is going. Where they would like it to go.
As a result, alarmingly high alcohol and drug abuse, desperate criminal behavior, and suicide.
The happiest time of the year, for many people, is nothing but.
The holidays are, for many people, filled with anxiety, and dread, and despair.
At the very time, that we remember when God sent the only one who can relieve them of it; take it from them; wash them free of it.
That’s why it is so important that Jesus be the star of Christmas. Because the weight of living can be very heavy, and only Christ can help us to give it a rest.
And we so desperately need to.
Our reading today is from a deep and complex chapter, as is most of the book of Hebrews, and so we certainly won’t cover every aspect of it by any means this morning, but it does make one thing very clear.
God desires us to rest. But we cannot, and will not rest in anything, or anyone but Him. And through Christ has given us all that we need to do so.
Hebrews Chapter 4 [From the NLT – New Living Translation]
1 God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. 2 For this good news-that God has prepared this rest-has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God.* 3 For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said,
” In my anger I took an oath:
‘ They will never enter my place of rest,’”*
even though this rest has been ready since he made the world. 4 We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: “On the seventh day God rested from all his work.”* 5 But in the other passage God said, “They will never enter my place of rest.”*
6 So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. 7 So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted:
” Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”*
8 Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. 9 So there is a special rest* still waiting for the people of God. 10 For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. 11 So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.
12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.
14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
The fact that we we don’t rest in the assurances of God is not new. And for non-believers, it not unnoticed.
The famous Hindu leader Ghandi was exposed to Christianity a number of times in his life, and he claimed he was very open to adopting it as his religion.
This is very plausible thing because Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism generally promote the idea that one should always be open to a greater truth, and one should adopt that which is true, and reject that which is false, even if that means rejecting your own faith.
So if Christianity rang true, Ghandi stated he was very ready and willing to be converted. He actually said this over and over throughout his life.
But then, from time to time, he was asked why he had yet to accept Christianity.
His response, paraphrased, was that Jesus taught peace, and his followers didn’t practice it. He saw so much upheaval and unhappiness amongst Christians. Even in individuals lives, Christians so often seemed so anxious and uptight and fearful.
So he surmised that if this was a faith based on truth, the promised transformation and inner peace of Jesus’ believers should be more evident.
This sentiment has been echoed by prominent Jewish leaders as well. They are often quoted to say, “If Jesus is the prince of peace, why has he not brought it yet.
And the Dalai Lama has expressed similar concerns coming from Buddhist practitioners.
Now it’s a weak argument, most obviously demonstrated by the fact that the practitioners of these and the other world religions don’t practice it well themselves.
I have sat amongst Buddhists, fpr example, on a number occasions, and they claim to be to the religion of peace, yet I’ve been shocked at how angry and judgmental some of them have been. With all their meditation, and introspection, they are still often unsettled and disturbed inside. There desire to be at peace is requires vigorous effort, and is real conflict of terms…peace through vigorous effort.
But then again, Buddhism has no God. They have so Savior, no Messiah. Some falsely think they worship Buddha, as a God, but they don’t. He was just an enlightened man, and they worship His teachings, which they believe may have been past along by reincarnation.
But bottom line, there is no higher power in Buddhism. All things come from ones self. So we can plainly see why there is no rest in that.
Hinduism has many gods and goddesses. Just keeping them straight and figuring out which one to appease is a real task. Especially considering the fact that there are so many rules and if you get things wrong, you might come back at a bug, or snake, or a cow (and the last one is actually a good thing).
Judaism makes great demands upon it’s faithful, with no hope of eternal rest. Many don’t know that there is no heaven promised in Judaism. The Jewish faith is all about God’s dealing in this life. And at best, after a hard life, which has been expected and experienced by a great deal of Jews, you can hope to finally, and thankfully, just be dead, in Abraham’s bosom, with your ancestors.
And Islam only promises rest after this life is over. And only again, if you got it right in this life, and God was in a good mood, and He smiled upon you. But the prophet is long dead, and the Messiah is yet to come, and they have no promise of rest in THIS LIFE, only strenuous effort in expectation of righteous judgment.
So we could start there, and say that these fold may criticize Christians for not embracing Christ’s rest very well, but not of them even have it promised, at all. They have no Jesus.
We could start there. But in a way, it would be like telling someone they smell bad, while you’re standing knee deep in horse manure.
Yes, we all stink at resting in God.
But we’re the only ones with Jesus, the only who says…”28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry”
And it’s no wonder that people of the world are so upset and anxious and burden filled.
They don’t have Jesus, but we do.
And his rest is a promise of God, to followers of Jesus Christ.
It’s the Gospel truth. And we have it, so don’t we take rest in Christ better?
I kind of hate to admit it. It might sound unkind. But I have that thought run through my head sometimes when talking with people.
We expect the upheaval, and distress, and extreme anxiety and worry, and the drama filled lives from non-believers. What do they have to rest upon?
But when the same level of chaos and fear comes pouring from the life of a professed Christ follower it can really be concerning.
Because we, not them, have someone who “carries us” when times get rough. He’s yoked up to us, and takes care of us through thick and thin and all he asks it that we trust him.
I am shocked at how many times I have personally lost track of God’s rest. Instead of really relying of God’s providence, and resting in him, I literally “lose sleep” worrying about how I’m going to handle things. How I’m going to get myself out of something.
How “I’m ” going to do it. Have you ever been there?
That’s when we have to pray to God to help us “give it a rest” Help us to give it to him.
To give it over. Give it up. There is no “I” in Jesus. There is an “us” but there is not I. But we love that letter “I”. I can do it. NO YOU CAN’T. You couldn’t before, you can’t know. If you’ve ever stuggled with anything, from alcoholism to eating too many potato chips, you can’t end the struggle of your own effort. You can’t and you won’t.
You have to give it over to God. He can do it.
Scripture tells us God will give us rest, and complete rest, and satisfying rest, when we rest in Him.
As a matter of fact, “On the seventh day, for mankind, God created rest.”
And it is something we all want. We all seek rest. Many of us spend thousands of dollars on vacations in pursuing rest.
But even in our vacations and our holidays, we our own we don’t get any.
I find myself personally really exhausted sometimes going on vacation. It’s a lot of work.
But it’s a lot of work, usually, because I’m depending too much on me.
God will get it done, whatever the outcome, if we trust Him.
To all rest-seekers Christ says, “Come to me.”
If we want rest, all we have to do is go to Christ. If we seek rest, we are asked to do just this one thing: we are asked to come to Christ.
Which means we have to break away from our hectic life schedules, and pause, and experience God’s presence.
It means we have to stop, and “be still” and know that He is God!
We must stop and so we can be fed.
St. Gregory wrote: “the word of God is the bread of the angels, which feeds the soul that is hungry for God.”
The word of the Lord brings good news to the restless soul. The Good News assures us, gives us hope, and gives us rest. It is ” alive and powerful”
And only through the word of God that we know “that all things work together for good”
That we are “children of God” and loved by him. And only through the Word, can we really know who we are, who Jesus is, why he came and what he did for us on the cross.
It’s only then, knowing the truth, the life, and the way, that we can we really rest.
But we can’t know these things if we don’t stop, and let God in.
Hebrews 10 For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. 11 So let us do our best to enter that rest.
It means we have to pause from our regular business, to allow God space to work in our lives, but also we remind ourselves that we are not the ones in charge.
And we can’t do that until we really practice letting go of ourselves. If we are overfilled with ourselves and the things of the world, there is no space for Jesus to grow in us.
There’s a story of a monk who was filled with great wisdom. One anxious student traveled to the monk’s house in order to inquire about complex philosophical questions.
As soon as the student arrived, he started asking his questions. But this wise monk, did not reply back. When the monk noticed the student’s frustration, he asked the student to pour tea for both of them and not to stop pouring until he told him to. As the student poured and the cup spilled over, the monk said nothing.
The student, confused, exclaimed that the cup was overfilling, and to this the monk replied,
” So are you!” Overfilled, overflowing.
Likewise we are often filled with sin and worries and things of the world, so we must consciously take time to empty ourselves.
And we should note, that this concept of emptying oneself is shared by most of the worlds religions.
And in many of them, especially eastern religions, you empty yourself, and then simply remain an empty void, you experience nothingness, a vacuum.
That is not the case with those who follow Jesus.
This takes us to the fourth thing that we must do to fully experience God’s rest. And it’s unique to Christianity.
As Christ-followers we do empty ourselves, but only so that we may be filled with Him.
I like to call it “centering prayer”. Taking silent time, to let go of the world and get really centered on Jesus and be filled with Him.
Some others, either those of other faiths, or those with no faith at all have wondered why Christians don’t embrace the rest found in Christ more fully. And it’s an honest question.
Because they have no rest at all, and wonder why we don’t enter the rest promised to us.
We should examine that. As we approach the manger, this season, and sing Silent Night, Holy Night, All Is Calm, All Is Bright. Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Is that true for us.
Jesus is the greatest gift ever given. But a gift just setting there is of not use.
The gift must both be give, and revived.
To enter God’s rest, we must accept it and take it and live it.
Amen.
©2011 Timothy Henry