Advent --Peace

Advent Week 4–Peace

Exchanging Work for Peace

Intro: What is Peace? is it the absence of war or busyness? is it getting through a family holiday dinner without arguing as we see in so many holiday movies. Or is it something more.

Read Verses:

Main Point: Jesus is the only person to give you true rest

I. Who do you talk to Find Rest? (25-27)

The first part of chapter 11, Matthew recounts Jesus teaching his disciples and then the crowds about who John the Baptist is. John was doubting a little bitJesus confirms to John’s disciples in verses 5 and 6 that Jesus is indeed the messiah because John’s disciples ask Jesus Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Basically, “are you the messiah or do we have more work to do to keep looking for the real one?

4 Jesus replied to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy[a] are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news, 6 and blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me.”

Yes, i am the messiah,i am the one you are waiting for. I am the one who is to come, to use the Baptist’s own words when he was proclaiming Jesus’ coming.

(Matthew (NAC)): Jesus wants to remind John of the messianic significance of some of the specific miracles of healing (recall ; ; LXX). Such works were in fact undermining the evil powers of the universe, even if in surprising ways.

Jesus then turns to the crowds and explains that John is Elijah. He is the one who announces the messiah is coming. He explains both sides of the coin, essentially.

In verses Jesus turns his attention the doubters in a few cities ,but it is really aimed at the generation. The people who were living in this time were witnessing Jesus and his ministry first hand. He was literally fulfilling scripture before their eyes and yet many, especially the Pharisees and sadducees were mounting opposition toward Jesus.

In verse 25 Jesus starts off with a prayer. And he gives thanks to God the father

25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants. 26 Yes, Father, because this was your good pleasure.

Jesus is saying, That the people who are thought of as Wise and intelligent are unable to truly understand who Jesus is. But God has allowed innocent people who are thought of as less intelligent to know and understand the simplicity of Jesus’ message. That Jesus is the messiah and he is that has fulfilled scripture.

Verse 27 is the key here

27 All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal him.

We see this relationship between the two people of the trinity,the father and the son. There is an exclusivity to it. And yet, certain people are let into the relationship through the Son. The Son is the doorway to the father.

We as children recognize our need for our father to take care of us. And we joyfully submit and rely on God and His sovereignty and care for us.

Application 1: Knowing Jesus is the only way to get rest.

If you are tired, what is the only way to restore your body? Sleep. Caffeine or other stimulants only work temporarily but they do more harm than god because hey take over for your body’s natural function. Sleep is the only way to reset your body.

When people don’t get enough sleep, their health risks rise. Symptoms of depression, seizures, high blood pressure and migraines worsen. Immunity is compromised, increasing the likelihood of illness and infection. Sleep also plays a role in metabolism: Even one night of missed sleep can create a prediabetic state in an otherwise healthy person. “There are many important connections between health and sleep,” says dr Wu.

Your body will get sleep one way or another whether that means you fall asleep in a meeting, at dinner or at the wheel. It is important to get sleep, but it is more important to come to Jesus. He is the only way to eternal life and true knowledge.

says The fear of the Lord

is the beginning of knowledge;

fools despise wisdom and discipline.

Isaiah 26:3 States You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in You

Jesus says in , “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

No one else can get you to God. In the Old Testament, Moses, Abraham, or David could not get anybody else close to God. Buddha, Mohamed, or Confucius, or Plato, Aristotle or any other philosopher can get you to God. They cannot take way your sins and show you who God is. Only Jesus can do that.

TS: If you want rest, or peace, you need to come to Jesus.

II. Where do you go to Find Rest? (28)

Jesus answers this question, and says Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. You have to go to him because he is the only one that can provide the rel rest you need. Everything else is like the caffeine we get from energy drinks, coffee, or soda. It gets us awake for the time being so we can get through the day but eventual it wears off ad we need another cup of coffee.

We think we just need a break or a day off, but it is more than that.jesus is always more than just a physical break from our everyday life.

But what is the rest that Jesus offers? John Newton points out The word used expresses something more than rest or a mere relaxation from toil; it denotes refreshment likewise. A person weary with long bearing a heavy burden will need not only to have it removed, but likewise he wants god and refreshment to restore his spirits and to repair his wasted strength. Such is the rest of the Gospel. It not only puts a period to our fruitful labor, but it affords a sweet reviving cordial. There is not only peace, but joy in believing.

The acceptance of the Gospel does not give you a physical rest, but a rest for the soul. A spiritual rest.

AW Pink points it that the rest that Jesus provides

1) His Rest is is a deliverance from that vain and wearisome quest to obtain worldliness from different people or objects.

Jesus is the living water that quenches our thirst, we don't have to keep going to a different well to get a drink that will keep us from thirsting.

2) We can rest in understanding the love that God has for us and how vilely we have repaid him, then we are cut to the quick. When by faith we come to Christ all this is altered.

3) We can rest in God’s grace from our sins and our own works. We don’t have to earn our way into heaven. Our entrance price has been paid.We get to return to our heavenly home at some point.

TS: All of these ways to rest are made possible by Jesus and the work on the cross. He is the giver of rest. And so there is a way you have to accept the rest so you can partake in the rest.

III. What do you do to Find Rest (29-30)

Jesus goes on to state “Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

In Jesus’ statements you can see this gift exchange first hand. It is the condition with which the rest or peace you are looking for is given.

You can exchange your sins, your burdens, your hardships for something easier, someone else to carry those things for you.

Application: You can obtain the rest by humbling yourself and accepting God’s will for your life.

1)Take up my yoke. Surrender yourself to my Lordship. Exchange your will for mine. Use your free will to put on the yoke. God does not throw the yoke on yo to trap you and put you to work for him. And all of these things will be worked out. This does not mean there won’t be hardship, but this is part of the cost of disciple.

Oxen yoked to by their master are working for him, but he feeds them, he houses, he make sure they are healthy. The oxen that are free to roam, are free to figure all of those things out by themselves.

Humility is the key to accepting Jesus because Jesus was humble as well. If we are to be like Christ then we have to act like him. He Humbles himself to the pot of death for us.

The author of Hebrews explains, in 2:9 But we do see Jesus—made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone—crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death.

2). Learn from me. In order to learn from someone else, you have to be quiet and listen. Sometimes that is hard for people to do. But it is necessary to grow. This is after part of the discipleship process. We are called children and that means we must go to school “Jews commonly spoke of taking on the yoke of the Torah to refer to the acceptance of the stipulations of the law. But, as the Sermon on the Mount has made plain, Jesus calls people not to the law but to himself.”

The rest Jesus offers his disciples enables them to overcome a certain measure of “fear, anxiety, uncertainty, and meaninglessness in the joy and peace of God’s very presence in Jesus Christ.” By way of contrast, most Jews found the interpretations of the law imposed on them by their leaders increasingly burdensome (23:4; cf. , which uses the identical “yoke” imagery).

Pau kept working to make disciples and he was busy, but there seemed to be a calmness to his work. He seems to never get flustered when he was thrown in jail or thrown out of a town or speaking to rulers. He went about his business because it was God’s business. Paul happily accepted the yoke that Jesus offered. And it as not due to the idea of the law, and he had a right to be scared or uncertain because he found himself in many uncertain and uncomfortable situations. But he trusted God and he had a peace about him.

We are not under the law as it were where we are bound to follow the law to get into heaven. The law is fulfilled through Jesus, and his birth death and resurrection.

We can have the same rest, knowing that Jesus has paid it all, and his birth that we celebrate on Christmas made that possible.

Jesus is speaking with his disciples in and starting in Verse 23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Conclusion:

Jesus is the only way to make the rest possible. There is no other way.

We have been delivered from spiritual torment but the physical work still exists, but it can be easier when we are working for God.

In order to obtain the peace, we must exchange our will for God’s will and place Him over ourselves. We must humble ourselves in order to learn from Him.

If we do this, we will have the peace in knowing that we have exchanged temporary physical lives for eternal spiritual ones.

It is natural to buck against the yoke, to want to get out of it. It’s what caused the fall of man. And we lost our anchor point andAdm and Eve were sent to wander. But we can come back.

Jesus is the only one to truly provide us with peace. And as Jonathan Edwards said, The peace of Jesus “fixes the aim of the soul to a certain end. So that the soul is no longer distracted and drawn contrary ways by opposite ends to be sought, and opposite portions to be obtained. Instead, the heart is fixed in the choice of one certain sufficient and unfailing good”.

Closing Prayer: 20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with every good thing to do his will, carrying out in us what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever. Amen.