"There's Rest At the rock"

There’s Rest At The Rock

Matthew 11:28-30 (NASB)

I read about a woman who telephoned a friend and asked how she was feeling, “Terrible,” came the reply over the phone, “my head’s splitting and my back and legs are killing me. The house is a mess, and the kids are simply driving me crazy.” Very sympathetically the caller said, “Listen, go and lie down, I’ll come over right away and cook lunch for you, clean up the house, and take care of the children while you get some rest. By the way, how is your husband Sam?”

“Sam?” the complaining housewife gasped. “I have no husband named Sam.”

“My heavens,” exclaimed the first woman, “I must have dialed the wrong number.”

There was a long pause. “Are you still coming over?” the harried mother asked hopefully.

Americans are tired people. Hectic schedules have many folks going to bed late and getting up early, and surveys show that most people in our country simply don’t get enough sleep. 

A recent newspaper article reported that some companies are encouraging employees to take naps during the lunch hour so their workers won’t be so tired and unproductive in the afternoon. A highway patrol official says that besides drunk drivers, the most dangerous people on the highway are over-tired drivers. But it is not just our bodies which get tired. The stress and complexity of modern life take its toll on our souls. Many folks are overwhelmed with their responsibilities at work or school. Others get burned-out by financial or family problems. Everyday hundreds of people are admitted to hospitals because they are suffering from physical or emotional exhaustion. Many of us, at least at times, are very weary people. Often, we need some rest. (can I get an amen)

Is the church a place where we get some relief from the rapid pace of life? Notice what Jesus did not say, “Come to church to find rest” Listen, Christianity begins with meeting Christ personally. Going to McDonalds does not make you a hamburger. Going into a garage doesn’t make you a car. Going to church does not make you a Christian (you must meet Christ personally). Gathering information about Jesus does not make you a Christian. Joining a group does not make you a Christian. Having Christian parents doesn’t make you a Christian.

You become a Christian through a moment in time choice to answer His invitation to turn from your own ways and come to Him. You will find that He’s been waiting for you all along. Have you done that? Can you look to a time when you decided to answer His call to come?

You say, “but my life is really a mess, I don’t think I am ready to come.” Listen, His invitation says to “Come one, come all, come as you are!”

The words that Jesus has for us in the Gospel of Matthew is indeed great news and hope for weary people. In it, we read Jesus’ marvelous invitation. Matthew 11:28 says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Today, as we explore Jesus’ words, let’s pray He would help us discover how we can experience the marvelous rest that He offers.

Some of us might wonder, can followers of Jesus really find rest? Many times, we have talked about how it is not easy to be a Christian. In fact, at the end of Chapter 10 in Matthew it says that followers of Jesus will frequently have more conflicts within their families. Being a Christian is not a life of chillin’ in the cut eating a turkey sandwich with lettuce, cheese, and bacon on rye while sipping on grape Kool-Aid and holding on to a cookie.

How can it be restful? Even Jesus’ words are a bit confusing. 11:28-30 “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 in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 

We are tired. We need rest. What does Jesus offer us? Not a bed or pillow, but a yoke. The yoke, of course, was put on an ox or a donkey to pull a heavy load. Jesus uses the term to refer to being His disciple. To be a Christian means following Jesus, learning and doing certain things. It hardly seems like an easy life. Yet, Jesus promises us that, if we follow Him, we “will find rest for our souls.” 

If we seek to live by His grace and for His glory, we will find that His yoke is easy, and the burden is light. How does this work? I think the heart of what Jesus says is this: “Being a Christian is not always easy. If you follow Me, it is going to sometimes be a very rough and uphill road. But it will be a good life, a very good life and though I can’t promise you that your body won’t sometimes feel very tired, your soul is going to be refreshed.” There are many reasons why this is true but let me mention three reasons why being a Christian is a good life.

#1 – The alternatives to following Jesus are not good. The light burden that Jesus gives us to carry is a clear contrast to the heavy burdens of other religions. That is what the Pharisees put on people in Jesus’ day. They taught that to please God, one had to follow a long list of religious rituals and regulations. Because people never kept these rules perfectly, they often struggled with guilt and always wondered if they had done good enough to please God. That was a heavy burden. Jesus’ yoke is much lighter because it offers forgiveness and assurance of God’s favor. There are still folks today whose religion involves very heavy burdens. Anyone who chooses to follow a path of works and law to earn salvation is under a much heavier yoke than someone who has found salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Those who seek to earn God’s favor by performing religious rituals or following a set of rules, no matter whether they are Hindus, Muslims, Catholics or Baptists, are all bearing very heavy burdens.

But it is not just religions that put heavy burdens on people. Whenever people decide they are going to ignore God and just do what they want to do, they often end up in slavery, becoming slaves to their own appetites. As Jesus says in John 8:34, “Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.” 

We see that so clearly in our society. Addictions to alcohol, gambling, pornography, and illicit sex ruin lives and destroy families. There are people living in this community who don’t have enough money to buy food for their family because they are losing hundreds of dollars a week gambling. Listen, sinful addictions are a much heavier yoke than following Jesus. So, though being a Christian is not always easy, it is often much harder to not be a Christian.

#2 – Following Jesus is a good life because the Holy Spirit helps us obey the Lord’s commands. This makes it a lot easier to be a Christian. One of the most important promises that God gave His people in the Old Testament was that one day He would make it easier for His people to obey Him. Ezekiel 11:19-20 says, “And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 so that they may walk in My statutes, and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.” 

This promise has been fulfilled. Jesus has come, He’s given us the Holy Spirit and, now we are “new creations in Jesus Christ.” 

That means that if we are a Christian, if we are a true believer in Jesus Christ, we have a whole different attitude about obeying the Lord. God has changed our desires, and His Spirit is giving us a desire to follow Jesus, which makes it a much easier thing to do.

#3 – Following Jesus is a good life because we are able to overcome two big problems, guilt and fear. Even though our outward circumstances may be very difficult, even though we may be having lots of horrible, rotten, no-good, very bad days where we want to throw in the towel, this freedom from guilt and fear is what provides rest for our souls. 

Guilt is a problem with which many folks struggle. Financial mistakes, broken relationships, sexual misconduct, lies which have been told, all bring a lot of painful guilt to our lives. One way some people try to deal with this is a product called Disposable Guilt Bags. These are a set of ten ordinary brown bags on which are printed the following instructions: “Place the bag securely over your mouth, take a deep breath and blow all your guilt out. Then dispose of the bag immediately.” The kit sells for $2.50 and thousands have been purchased. Listen, don’t buy any of those bags, even if they are on sale. There is nothing on earth that can get rid of guilt except the blood of Jesus Christ which He shed on the cross. A Christian finds, as 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

What a promise! What great news for sinners like you and me. Following Jesus is a good life because we can do it with a clear conscience, free of the heavy burden of guilt.

Being able to overcome fear, especially fear of death, is something else which brings rest to our souls. When General Patton, of World War 2 fame, was commended for his great courage, he told a friend, “Frankly, every time I hear a gunshot, I realize that I’m a coward. I am afraid to die.” Most people are afraid to die. In our culture, we have figured out ways to ignore and disguise death. But eventually, we all will die. Yet, the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the promise that Christians too will one day be raised, give Jesus’ followers confidence in the face of death. As a pastor, the greatest privilege I have is to stand beside the bed of a dying saint who is not afraid, because they believe, “Jesus lives and so shall I; death, thy sting is gone forever.” 

With the burden of guilt and the fear of death removed, our soul starts to find rest, even when following Jesus doesn’t seem so easy.

Sometimes the Lord asks us to do things which make us very uncomfortable. Sometimes following Jesus costs us financially. Sometimes it means people will laugh at us or even persecute us in some way. But don’t be discouraged. The Lord assures us that whatever we give up for His sake, He will reimburse us many times over.

Remember in Luke 18:28 Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!” Peter is essentially saying, “Lord, we have made a lot of sacrifices for you.” “No, you have not,” Jesus responds. Luke 18:29 says, “I tell you the truth, no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.” 

It is worth it to follow Jesus. We will get some of the benefits here and now. But, the bulk of the rewards will be experienced in the next life, in heaven. But the important thing is that in the end, no one who has followed Jesus Christ is going to regret his/her choice a single bit. And knowing that, can give us hope and joy. 

Someone once told me, “Pastor, I don’t really like my job a whole lot, but when I think about the paycheck I get every two weeks, it keeps me smiling all day long.” Listen, there will be times when we don’t really like following Jesus a whole lot. But, when we remember all the marvelous promises that the Lord has given to those of us who trust Him, it should keep us smiling, and keep us rejoicing throughout the day.

Closing Illustration

I like the story about the 92-year-old lady who was very contented with her life. Another lady wrote these words about her: She is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with her hair brushed, and her makeup perfectly applied, in spite of the fact she is legally blind. Today she moved to a nursing home. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making this move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home where I am employed, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.

As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet curtains that had been hung on her window.

‘I love it,’ she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

“’Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room … just wait,’” I said. Then she spoke these words that I will never forget. ‘That does not have anything to do with it,’ she gently replied. ‘Joy is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not does not depend on how the furniture is arranged. It is how I arrange my mind. I have already decided to love it. It is a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice. I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or I can get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do work. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I will focus on the new day and all of the happy memories I have stored away…just for this time in my life. Age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what your soul has already put in.’”