Matthew 11:1-30
Notes
Transcript
I’m about to spend two weeks at Camp Assurance, coming back on the weekend between for the church service and congregational meeting. I enjoy camp ministry. However, as I look ahead, I am faced with the fact that I am going to be really tired. And what am I going to do for rest.
One of the top idols in America is comfort. We like to be happy. We like to have rest. And we will look for that rest in so many places.
The desire for physical rest is tied to our desire for spiritual rest. Our sin and the sin of others bombard us with chaos, insecurities, dread, and a lack of peace. We are bombarded through so many places and pulpits on ways to get spiritual rest so that we can have physical rest.
Unfortunately, whether we are talking about spiritual rest or physical rest, we look for it in the wrong places.
Matthew has been introducing his readers to Jesus the King, the one who has authority and the one who provides for his subjects needs, including rest.
Today, as we study Matt 11:1-30, we are going to look at where rest is not found and where it is found.
Before we dive in, would you pray with me?
1. Rest Is Not in…
1. Rest Is Not in…
As we dive into this passage we find things that true rest is not in.
A. Situations
A. Situations
First, we see that rest is not in situations.
After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.
When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
It seems as if John, who has been staring at prison walls for a long time has begun to doubt his cousin as the Messiah. So, he sends some disciples to ask Jesus point blank who he is. And Jesus responds by referring to a Messianic prophecy.
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
He is proclaiming the good news for the poor. He is binding up the brokenhearted by healing all these diseases, but when he should have said: proclaim freedom for the captives and release for the prisoners, he turns to the one in prison and says:
Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
John, I’m not getting you out of prison. Hope in me and not in a change in your situation. Rest in me and not in a change of your situation.
I can’t blame John for his thinking. When I am tired, when I am depressed, when things aren’t going my way, I convince myself that the only thing that I need is a change in my situation.
But that is a lie. Changing a situation will not change my heart. A situation does not bring peace or rest. Only who we are in relation to Jesus does that.
B. Position
B. Position
Our position does not bring rest either.
As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written:
“ ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’
Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
I’m sure that many of the crowd had overhead John’s question through his disciples and many might have wondered how John could ask that question, because he was the one called to prepare the way. How could he doubt who Jesus was? How could he be so concerned.
Jesus verifies that John is indeed the one prophesied to prepare the way for the Messiah. But, his position is not enough.
He said:
Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
One’s position does not bring peace or rest. Whether we are a manager or a grunt worker. Whether we won the game or lost. Whether we are married or divorced. the only thing that truly brings peace or rest is one’s relationship to Jesus Christ.
C. Cultural Norms
C. Cultural Norms
Some might say: I’m okay with not finding rest in my position or my situation, because I am firmly grounded in my culture. What happens around me is always what has happened and as long as I can living around what I expect, as long as things are within my preconceived notions, I’ll be okay.
Well, Jesus said:
“To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
“ ‘We played the pipe for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn.’
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”
The Jewish people had an idea of what they thought should happen. Incidentally, both the forerunner of the Messiah and the Messiah himself did not line up with that expectation. John was outside of the box in that direction. Jesus was outside the box in the other direction. They both don’t fit and should be excluded.
They said: Our God will be a certain way based upon the culture that I come from and all those who serve my God will align with what my culture says. As long as what happens lines up with that line, I will be happy.
But the moment is doesn’t, I will pout, I will complain, I will blame and call names because it doesn’t line up with what I think is right. John has a demon! Jesus is a glutton and a drunkard!
A huge case in point is politics. So many people base their emotional equilibrium based upon who is in office and what policies are being enacted. I have talked with Democrats and Republicans and they both do it. They have convinced themselves that God is shocked by who is elected sometimes or that certain policies were pushed through in spite of God’s best efforts.
They have no peace. They have no rest, because it is based upon their own little box, thinking that God has to work within it and he cannot outside of it.
So situations, positions, cultural norms, do not bring rest.
D. Religious Systems
D. Religious Systems
Religious systems do not bring rest either.
Jesus begins to yell out in the crowd:
Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
He brings a contrast between three cities in what was modern day Israel and three of the worst cities in the Old Testament. Tyre is compared with Satan in Ezekiel 28. Sidon is mentioned along with Tyre throughout the Old Testament. Jezebel who led Israel away from worshiping the one true God and to worshiping Baal and Ashteroth came from Sidon.
And Sodom is famous for being destroyed by fire and brimstone from Heaven because of its wickedness.
These are cities that were held up as the epitome of evilness.
And Jesus says that Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum were worse cities. They saw the miracles of Jesus. They heard his teaching. And yet they refused to turn from their own religious systems and to him.
They thought that their religious systems, their rituals, their beliefs were enough. They could have peace. Peace in this life. Peace in the next.
They could have rest. In this life and in the next, if they just followed their own systems. Who needs Jesus!
And Jesus said that they would be judged worse on the day of judgement than Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom, because they were given a huge chance to repent.
There are many people who follow their own systems, thinking that they are enough. Whether it is faith in works rather than Jesus. Or faith in rituals, rather than in Jesus. Or maybe it is faith in a completely different religion. And they hear the message of Jesus. He gives them chance after chance to turn from their false peace and false rest, but they don’t.
And Jesus says to them:
But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
E. Christ
E. Christ
Where are we finding our rest? Is it in our situations? Our positions? Our Cultural Norms? Or Religious Systems?
Or is it in Christ?
Jesus proclaims:
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.
“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.”
Jesus brings rest in a way that nothing else does.
He brings spiritual rest.
Every single one of us are sinners. We live in a way that does not meet the holiness of God. Our sin separates us from the one who can give peace. Our sin causes us to live in chaos, groaning for redemption. Knowing deep within that we are missing something in our lives and we are constantly trying to fill ourselves with something to give meaning and rest. We are trying to do things to fill that hole.
But, the only thing that can fill the hole is God. Which is why Jesus died. He paid the penalty for our sins, and by doing that he brings us close to God.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
That peace brings rest to our souls, when we don’t have to wonder anymore about eternity. We don’t have to struggle to earn our way to forgiveness. We don’t have to struggle to make ourselves purified. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had cast a crimson stain. He has washed it white as snow.
Once we have taken Jesus’ yoke on ourselves and he has given us spiritual rest, he also produces physical rest.
He 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.
Something happens when we commune with Jesus. We open our Bible and spend time with him, we meditate on the word, we talk with God and listen to the Spirit. We have rest.
A deeper rest than any book or movie or musical score or fishing trip or firearm or drug or drink could give.
Does that mean we shouldn’t read a book or go fishing. No, those are God’s gifts for us to enjoy. But we enjoy them in order to glorify Him, and the ultimate rest is found in him, not in our situation, our position, whatever is happening in our culture, or the religious system that we have left to follow the giver of rest.
