The Call of Jesus to Rest

October 21, 1990

Luke 6:20-26; Matthew 11:28

Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Introduction

Jesus had a way of turning things 'upside down' when He spoke. He said things like "Blessed are the poor" and "It is good sometimes to mourn." His words are...

I. A CHALLENGE TO OUR VALUES

['Things' do not truly satisfy.]

Just think what He said:

  1. "Blessed poor" "Happy hungry" "Hopeful mourners" ... we are familiar with the Beatitudes— but when we look at them again and again we wonder again, "What could this mean?"

    Jesus certainly was not glorifying poverty. But somehow we get the message that life is bigger and richer and more holy than the things we often fill our days and nights with.

    And, too, Jesus was not your run-of-the-mill 'power-of- positive-thinking-type guru. Jesus never taught "All things work together for good!"

  2. There is a negative side to truth, as well as a positive. There is death as well as life. There is blessing, yes. But there is also woe. Jesus taught that it is vitally important how we choose to order our lives, and what or whom we place at the center of our lives.

    The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the fact that through God's love and grace we have...

II. A CHOICE OF LIFE CENTERS

...and a choice between blessing and cursing, ...and a choice between rest and turmoil of spirit.

  1. The first word Jesus taught His disciples to PREACH was "Repent!" "Turn!" "Change course!" Why? "Because the kingdom heaven is near at hand!"
  2. The kingdom of heaven is a mystery! It IS here already! Jesus is in charge! And yet it IS COMING! Jesus is NOT in charge in the same way that one day- perhaps sooner than any of us think- He SHALL be!
  3. This kingdom is what Jesus is talking about when He says: "Blessed!" His kingdom is for people! His kingdom is LOVE! ("Love your enemies! Pray for them that despitefully use you!")

    But this kingdom is also militantly against SIN! That is why Jesus also said: "WOE!"

  4. Much of the religious community that passes for the Christian church is spread over a spectrum that goes from a damnable complacency with a legal, literal, mental conversion on one end of the scale to a militant worship of purely human values and wisdom at the other end.

    Both the extreme fundamentalist and the Christians who reject the authority of the Bible share one common thing: they demand to be in control of their own religion or lack of it. They lack the poverty of spirit, the mourning for sins, the purity of heart that Jesus tells us is necessary to truly see God.

It is to these people— people with all the answers— that Jesus pronounces His woes:

The militants who would re-write the Bible are shocking:

The militant feminists have spoken of traditional worship of Jesus as "christo-fascism." The respected scholar Richard John Newhaus quotes a teacher at a divinity school here in Massachusetts as stating that the doctrine of the atonement, the cross, represents "the sadomasochism of Christian teaching at its most transparent." And a further quote: "Is it any wonder that there is so much abuse in modern society when the predominant image or theology of the culture is of 'divine child abuse'- God the Father demanding and carrying out the suffering and death of His own son?"

The militant free-sex people, who tell us that Bible values are out-dated, are attacking the authority of the Catholic church, probably because many bishops are bold to denounce adultery, abortion, as well as homosexual promiscuity, and not too long ago interrupted a mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, a violation of guaranteed civil rights as well as everything sacred.

But the complacent fundamentalists are in danger, too:

It is true that we are not saved by what we DO. But it is also true that Jesus said over and again that we shall give an account of how we live this life. And if our faith in God, and our commitment to Jesus doesn't go deep enough to have any effect on the way we live, we are in danger of the same eternal damnation that waits for the out-and-out Christ rejecters!

Whatever "brand" we give ourselves as Christians, we must learn that we cannot EVER separate the kingdom of God from the Present, Living, Reigning KING! That is why Jesus taught as no one else ever taught. He didn't merely teach "lessons." He taught HIMSELF! Instead of talking about rest, Jesus said "Come to Me— and I will give you rest!"

[Jesus still extends to all who will hear!]

III. A CALL TO PERSONAL TRUST IN HIM

  1. We are so "intellectually" or "scientifically" biased that we think that the most important thing about faith is to get our "facts straight," to be theologically correct. And I certainly want to be correct; to be orthodox.

    But there is a different measuring stick that Jesus will use in the Day when He divides the nations! THAT SELECTION WILL BE ON THE BASIS OF WHETHER OR NOT HE KNOWS US! OF WHETHER OR NOT WE KNOW HIM!

    There will be people there on that Day who are as orthodox as the King James Version, who will be absolutely out of touch with what is going on; and there will no doubt be people WE would consider flaming liberals who have lived under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. There is no substitute for that PERSONAL relationship with Jesus! The word is: "COME UNTO ME! I will give you REST!"

  2. "Rest" does not come through ignoring the stress of the day, and it certainly does not come through trying to compromise with it.

    The only finally unbearable and intolerable burden is sin. The only inescapable tyrant is the unsublimated, undisciplined self.

  3. Jesus spoke these words in troublesome times. The common people who heard Jesus preach were mostly poor people in a middle- eastern country occupied by a foreign power. It is hard for us to imagine the bleakness of their outlook, or the extent of their physical poverty. Still, Jesus promised them rest unto their souls.
  4. Jesus spoke these words in the framework of choice. You come, and I will. You choose not to come, and I will not. Rest is connected with deliberately coming to Jesus. Just because you hear me say these words does not necessarily mean that you hear Jesus calling you. Your hearing has to be mixed with faith. But if there is any kind of spiritual desire for rest, and if there is a willingness to acknowledge Jesus as Lord, you have the possibility of making that choice!

PRAYER:

Lord Jesus, We press into Your promise for the Rest You have promised! We seek to draw near to YOU! Help us, each one, to know how to approach You, from where WE are, to where YOU are - in Jesus' name. Amen.

#29(EH) He has Surely Borne Our Sorrow

Link to Wollaston Choir singing this song: http://russellmetcalfesermons.nazarene.nl/Sermons/Sermons.htm#Audio/Music/Choir/Surely He Hath Borne Our Sorrows Choir.mp3