Rest (Matthew 11:28-30)

Introduction

Last week, we unveiled our new Chapel theme “The Loveliness of Christ.”

We saw the overall understanding that Christ is a gentle King, who wouldn’t break a bruised reed or blow out a smoldering wick.

He purchased justice on the Cross for us, and our rebellion against God, and we saw how HE came to seek and save that which is lost.

In the same realm of thinking, tonight we are going to see how Christ brings us rest.

Please open your Bibles to Matthew 11:28-30.

In this passage, Jesus promises to give rest to all that come to Him in faith. As we look at this passage, I want to point out four things to us about rest:

We were made to rest.

Rest is God’s good gift to mankind so much so its baked into all Creation.

Genesis 2:1-3.

Mark 2:27 “And Jesus was saying to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”

We’ll talk more about the Sabbath day in a bit.

Rest is so important that God put it into His law

Exodus 20:8–11 ““Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of Yahweh your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female slave or your cattle or your sojourner who is within your gates. “For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.” )

Jesus came to give Creation rest.

Genesis 3:15—>God promised offspring that would ultimately defeat Satan and sin, and bring and end to the curse.

Genesis 4:25—>Appointed another offspring, after Cain killed able. The Hope of

Noah (Rest) Genesis 5:29.

Romans 8:19-20.

Jesus came to give us rest from seeking purpose in this futile world.

Ecclesiastes 2:17 “So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me; because everything is vanity and striving after wind.”

Apart from the purpose of God, work and toil under the sun is ultimately pointless.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.

Luke 19:10 ““For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.””

Jesus came to give us rest from putting confidence in our works to get to heaven.

The Jews had co-opted the Sabbath by establishing their rules over it, rather than the glad rest of trust in God.

Some 39 or so rules added to what God says about it in Scripture, many like the 1000 step rule.

The day of rest now had turn into a highly regulated day in which you could almost never breath.

Remember what Jesus says Mark 2:27 “And Jesus was saying to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”

Jesus tore the religious system down of dead works by providing us His own righteousness as a gift.

2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Romans 3:27-31.

So where are you? Are you still striving after the wind for purpose? Do you still think that your good works will outweigh your bad works when you get to the final judgement?

STOP striving on your own strength, and come to Jesus! He will give you rest.