Find Rest

Since the beginning of March, I’ve been to 3 funerals and a wake or visitation for a fourth. The ages of the deceased were 86, 63, 44, and 15 years old. One died of old age. One died in a tragic accident. Another died suddenly and unexpectedly from a heart attack. And one was murdered. Only one of the four was expected to be near death. The other three were shocking and completely unexpected.

In one of the funerals, the pastor said a phrase in passing that really caught my attention. He said, “This is too real.” And so death appears to be when it comes unexpected. It is real because everyone dies. But it seems too real because we’re not prepared.

I share that because it is very important to consider the state of your soul today, right now. How much time any one of us has on this Earth is known only to God. If you were to die today, what would you say to God? If you were standing there before the Lord this very afternoon, and He asked you, “Why should I let you in to my heaven?” What would you say?


The answer is simple, of course. You’ve heard it many times before. We are going to remember and celebrate the answer together by taking communion in just a few minutes.

God will let us into heaven by one way and one way only. Heaven is completely without sin. There is no room for sin in heaven. Not one single sin can exist there. It is only possible for us to come to the perfect and holy place that heaven is after we have been made clean.

Now there are lots of ways people try to make themselves clean. Some people try just soap and water. Now some of you will say, really, do people try to make themselves clean from sin with soap and water? Yes, I’m afraid it’s true. There are certain sins where people respond by washing and showering for hours trying to wash away the unclean feelings that they have.

There are ones who try to always do the right things. By doing good, by being generous, by being kind to others; they think that they will grade high enough to pass the test. They think, “I’m better than all these other people. I’ll be good enough for God to let me in to heaven.”

Some look for religious solutions. If I just pray often enough. If I follow these rites and ceremonies, then I will be deemed worthy. This can be a lifetime of toil and self-sacrifice. Ultimately, they believe that they can achieve certain criteria that will get them into heaven.

I am sure that there are other ways that I’m forgetting or I can’t imagine. They all have one of two things in common. Either the method does not work, or we are incapable of succeeding at applying the method. I think everyone here would agree that soap and water is not sufficient to clean you up enough to get you in to heaven. In that case, the method is the problem. Anyone can take a bath, but even if you wash behind your ears, you are not going to be made perfect or holy by taking a bath.

On the other hand, it is possible to get to heaven by leading a perfect and sinless life. That method is valid. But, none of us is capable of living 24 hours without sin much less living an entire life free from sin. We all get angry. We all fail to meet commitments at one time or another. We all have told a lie.

We’ve all told lies for completely ridiculous reasons. One of our kids recently told a lie right before bedtime. I don’t even remember what the lie was. What I remember was that it was a really poor choice because I knew absolutely that it was a lie before they even finished talking. What I also remember was my initial response. I’m not kidding. I started to say, “Look, if you are going to tell a lie, you need to …” Well, about that point I caught myself. But I was beginning to tell them to plan their lies carefully. If you’re going to lie, make sure it’s really worth it. We know so well how to lie, that we can teach others how to do it!

We’ve also sinned without even knowing that we sinned. I had to pay a penalty to the IRS this year because I mixed up my dates and sent a payroll form a month late. I even had the form prepared in January before the deadline, and I did not mail it until February. A couple of weeks ago, I got a notice that I owed a penalty. I immediately thought, “There is no way I did anything wrong here. I’ve done it all right.” I had the phone in hand, and I was about to call when that moment of doubt set in. Well, I started reading and studying. In previous years, the IRS had sent me a letter with a copy of the form and the deadlines. This year for whatever reason, I did not get a form in the mail. Instead, I had to go and get it off the internet myself. Well regarding the deadline, I depended on my own memory. But, I was wrong. I missed the deadline. The payment was late. I was guilty, and I had to pay the penalty. In my mind, I’m thinking this is indirectly the fault of the IRS, isn’t it? But, the point is, I was guilty regardless of whose fault I thought it was. I was responsible to send the form in on time, and the form was late.

Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket for driving too fast when you didn’t actually know what the speed limit was? It didn’t matter that you didn’t know. You still got a ticket, right?

We cannot get into heaven by our own method for making ourselves clean. Nor can we get to heaven by our own attainment of perfection.

You can only be made perfectly clean in one way.

That way is by the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ for your sins. Jesus died as your substitute. He lived that perfect life that could get to heaven. Then, he allows us to be covered by his blood that we can enter in to heaven.

So when God asks you, “Why should I let you in to my heaven?” There is only one right answer. Why? “Because I believe that Jesus died for me.”

And that is how you find rest.

Jesus said to us:

"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." Matthew 11:27-29

Let’s go quickly through the words of these verses you have heard so many times before.

Rest is mentioned twice. Once at the end of the first sentence and again at the end of the second. Let’s take them one at a time.

First sentence: "Come to me." To get rest, we first need to come. We turn away from what we have been pursuing and come to him. It is significant that the command “Come” is an intensely present tense. Come, right now. Don’t delay. Come quickly.

Come to whom? Come to Jesus. He is to be trusted in. He is the one who has the authority to give rest. Come as you are, without money or merit or preparation. Come and come now.

Who can come? All. Praise God. There is no one excluded from the invitation. All may come. All who are weary and burdened. Burdened by sin, or weary with our struggling to be good enough to get to God. All may come. And? I will give. That promised rest is a gift. We don’t earn it. We don’t deserve it. It is a gift to us. Come to him and he will give. Not a rest experienced over time. Not a rest that is earned after some days or weeks or years. It is an immediate gift.

This first sentence is the rest of redemption, the rest of salvation, the rest of justification. It is a gift. We come to him, and he gives to us just because we came to him.

Now the second sentence. Jesus says that we will find rest. This is a different kind of rest. It is an experiential rest that is found, that is worked out over time. We must learn this rest. From the beginning of the second sentence …

"Take my yoke." How we bristle at those words! I thought that I just got rid of my burden, and in return, I get a yoke? But wait. Jesus is talking about something different here. In the first sentence, we came with our burden. In Lamentations, it says, “My sins have been bound into a yoke … they have come upon my neck.” We came to Jesus with the burden of our sin as a yoke around our necks, and he set us free from that yoke of sin. But you cannot continue in an empty state. Jesus himself explains that in Matthew chapter 12. It is not possible to live a life of emptiness and idleness as a Christian.

We have a tendency to soften the meaning of words. Today, I think that the word freedom is used to mean I get to do whatever it is I want to do. This is not real or true freedom but, virtual freedom. Our soldiers don’t go halfway around the world to fight and die for the kind of virtual freedom that allows us to waste our hours and days in pursuit of selfish pleasures. They fight for a virtuous freedom: one that allows for a stable society where people live in peace with one another, where families have stability and children are safe, where people have the opportunity to prosper and not live in fear. In the same way that there are societal constraints (laws and authorities), we must have constraints on our lives as Christians.

We are given a new burden, but it is a light and easy one. And the rest we receive with this yoke is a learned rest. What are the qualities that Jesus gives for being our teacher? Does he say I am wise and full of knowledge? No, rather he is gentle and humble of heart.

Learn to be gentle like Jesus. Who likes the movie Cars? What happens to Lightning McQueen when he first gets hitched to Bessie the paving machine? He asks Mater a question? He goes out full power and what ended up happening to the road? It’s a terrible mess of rough pavement. Then, afterward, he loses the race to Doc Hudson, and he comes back to fix the road. After he gets all the rough bumpy pavement up, he goes back with Bessie. He’s still the same powerful racecar, but he is now gentle and humble of heart. And how does the road end up? Smooth and perfect.

We can be the same way in our lives. We can be proud. We can be rough. We can be overbearing, demanding, whiny, or manipulative. But what do we leave behind us? Rough bumpy roads that are hard to fix.

We have as our example Jesus Christ, who “endured the cross, despising its shame.” If we learn Christ’s spirit, we shall find rest for our souls. Christ labored to do His Father’s will. We must work meekly, gently after his example.

This rest comes from our hearts and our spirits being conformed to the spirit of Christ. This deep, abiding rest comes not from our circumstances. I know a few people who will buy a lottery ticket, now and then. I know a whole lot more people who say how great their lives would be if they did win. If you are not at rest now where you are in your life, no amount of money, fame or power will give you rest. Rest only comes from Jesus Christ. This is the rest of sanctification, the rest of being made more like Jesus.

At what price did Jesus attain this gift of rest for us? It cost His blood and His body yielded to death on the cross. Let us take communion together now. As Natasha plays, when you are ready, come and take the bread and the cup, return to your seat. When you are ready, take and eat and drink, remembering …

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matthew 26:26-29

--Much of the material of this message was learned from a message by Charles Spurgeon. You can read it here. --