PROMISES YOU CAN COUNT ON (TALK 4/9: I WILL GIVE REST)

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

CONNECT: Is there an area in your life where you are currently not satisfied? How can knowing Jesus, receiving him, and worshiping him help in this?

WARM-UP 1. What in our culture do you think is helpful when it comes to rest? What is less helpful culturally? 2. What makes you feel most at rest? Why do you think that this is the case? READ Matthew 11:25-28 3. What does Jesus mean by saying that these things have been ‘hidden’ from the wise and the learned? 4. Who were some of the ‘wise and learned’ of Jesus’ time who thought they had everything figured out

when it came to God? Did that help them to see Jesus more clearly? Why or why not? 5. Why is it such great news that knowing God is not based on how ‘clever’ we are? 6. How can knowledge both lead us to and away from God? Can you think of some famous examples? 7. How extraordinary is the extent of the intimacy that Jesus claims with the Father? How close are they? 8. What causes you particularly to feel weary and burdened? Anything particular of late? 9. Who does Jesus offer rest to? How does it make you feel to know that Jesus has invited you to receive

his rest? How does knowing who Jesus is give us confidence that he can fulfil this staggering promise? 10. How have you known Jesus’ rest in your life to be true? Have there been particular times? 11. What aspects of your life right now would you love to be transformed by the rest that Jesus offers? 12. Have you gone to Jesus recently to receive his rest?

If so, what was that like? If not, how might you go to him this coming week? READ Matthew 111:29-30 13. Is the rest that Jesus offers just a form of inactivity? What is the nature of the rest that Jesus offers? 14. What does Jesus mean by ‘taking up his yoke’? (Think about the original context both agriculturally and

also with regard to the Law) How is being yoked to Jesus actually a form of freedom? 15. What have you been learning from Jesus over the last two months? 16. In a weary and worried world, how is Jesus’ promise such great news?

Who might you share this good news with this week?

APPLY: This week, try to stop and go to Jesus to receive the rest he offers. Try also to share this good news of rest with someone else.

PRAY: Loving Lord, thank you so much for your promise that we can find rest in you. Please help us to come to you, wearied and burdened as we might be, in order that we might receive the true rest that only you can offer. Please refresh us and send us to share that good news with everyone on our frontlines this week. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

For sermons and additional resources, visit STBARTS.COM.AU

PROMISES YOU CAN COUNT ON

(TALK 4/9: I WILL GIVE REST)

GOING DEEPER RESOURCES On Your Front Line this Week

• How has your frontline changed? What new Gospel opportunities are there?

For Families

• Download some of the family resources to use at home: stbarts.com.au/livestream

Listen and Watch

• AUDIO: “Lord of Heaven and Earth” by Leon Morris: https://resources.thegospelcoalition.org/library/lord-of-heaven-and-earth

• AUDIO: “The Scandalous Invitation of Jesus” by William Taylor: https://www.st-helens.org.uk/resources/talk/56065/

• AUDIO: “The School of Christ” by Dick Lucas: https://www.st-helens.org.uk/resources/talk/9649/

• AUDIO: Series from 2019 at St Bart’s, “Winter Warmers: Rest”: https://stbarts.com.au/sermon?category=Winter+Warmers+19+Series

• AUDIO: “Lord of the Sabbath” by D A Carson: https://resources.thegospelcoalition.org/library/lord-of-the-sabbath-matthew-12-1-14

Read

• ARTICLE: “The Power of Deep Rest” by Tim Keller: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-power-of-deep-rest/

For sermons and additional resources, visit STBARTS.COM.AU

Talk 4/9 (Promises You Can Count On): 17/05/20 “I WILL GIVE REST” by the Rev’d Adam Lowe

Bible Passage: Matthew 11:25-30

INTRODUCTION \\ WEARY & BURDENED

I wonder when was the last time that you had an offer that was too good to refuse? • Placement to train in the workplace of your dreams;

Promotion for the job that you’ve always thought you’d love; Front row tickets for the decider match of the state of origin; Acceptance to study at the university that’s the best in your field.

• They would all be pretty amazing offers under normal circumstances, but right now in our iso-world, we’s be delighted with an offer: to be able to visit family who you haven’t seen for months, to share a coffee outside of your house with a friend who is not part of your household, for someone to babysit so that mum and dad can go out on a date!

• I remember some years ago when Bettrys and I were going overseas, a friend kindly offered for us to stay at their holiday home in the south of France. We didn’t know how we’d fit it in, or how we’d get there, but we jumped at the chance!

• It was an offer too-good-to-refuse. • Yet right at the heart of Christianity is an offer of incomparable worth… Verse 28…

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (v.28) 2

• There’s almost no one I know right now who isn’t weary and burdened. Jesus says: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened.

• If you’re feeling fatigued from endless change… Jesus says, come to me; If you’re exhausted from trying to homeschool your kids… Jesus says, come to me; If you’re weighed down from obligations that you don’t know how you’ll meet… If you’re uncertain how to juggle life as everything crashes together… Jesus says, come to me.

• But of course, Jesus’ offer: is not just limited to those who feel weary and burdened by current context and conditions, but for rest, from the reality of the weariness and burden of living in a broken world. The weariness we feel is just a symptom of a deeper disease. The current crisis has lifted the lid, exposing the brokenness that just lies below the surface. of grieving the ravages of suffering, pain, and death, of endlessly trying to earn our worth before others, of attempting to maintain status, or keep up appearances, of hurting because of relationships that are broken. Come to me, and I will give you rest.

If you’re weary and burdened, this is a promise you should count on. • So, let’s look at the Source of rest, Type of rest, and the Way of Rest.

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A: COME TO JESUS \\ JESUS IS THE SOURCE! VV.25-28

So first, all are invited to COME TO JESUS for he is the SOURCE of rest.

“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. (v.27)

The premise for why we go to Jesus for rest and not to ourselves or anyone else: is because of the intimacy that Jesus shares with the Father, and the authority that has been entrusted to him.

• The intimacy that Jesus describes is extraordinary, it’s a claim to be God. Only the Father fully knows Jesus; only Jesus fully knows the Father. It’s a beautiful and mutual perfect relationship.

• Yet we’re told, that if you want to be in on that intimacy, if you want to know God, then God in his grace has opened up a way, that is only and uniquely found in Jesus: v.27b: no one knows the Father except the Son and those who the Son chooses to reveal him.

• Jesus’ invitation is extraordinarily inclusive: that it is an invitation open to all; Jesus’ invitation is extraordinarily exclusive: that it totally centres in him.

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• The one to whom, Jesus tells us, all things have been committed, entrusted.

• That he is the one, the only one, who has the authority, to deal comprehensively with everything that wrecks our world.

• So why would you go to anyone else? If anyone else made that claim, we would think they were a megalomaniac!

• However: Jesus demonstrated that authority with his life, Jesus showed that authority in his character, Jesus articulated that authority with his teaching.

• And now, as the one with all authority, risen, ascended, enthroned, and returning, he invites you to know him, not by some elaborate brain-teaser or spiritual search, but simply by responding to his invitation because he’s already come to us.

• That’s what Jesus means when he says from verse 25…

“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. (vv.25-26)

There were many religious leaders at the time, who thought that the way to know God was through their intellectual might.

• People still think that today. 5

• They were thoroughly trained scholars in the Scriptures, literature, and the arts. They would study endlessly, they would argue endlessly. They thought earnestly that knowledge was the way to know God. That’s who Jesus is speaking about when he says the wise and learned.

• And of course, if that was the way to know God, God would be about as far out of reach as becoming a rocket pilot and flying to the edge of the solar system.

• But Jesus cuts through all of that, and says, no, knowing God is not through your intellectual horsepower, knowing God is not through fulfilment of religious obligation, but you come to know God, how? By being like a little child.

• That’s not code for being naive and gullible, nor is Jesus saying that those who are more intellectually gifted can’t come to know God, but he’s saying that the way to know God is not through human effort or excellence, but through the excellence of knowing his Son.

When we lived in Durham, I remember going on a walk with a friend who is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. He is a professor in physics and a world-leading expert in string theory. But this day as I was asking questions, totally fascinated by his field, he stopped and looked at me, and said, “Adam, it’s all just numbers, things to know, I’m far more interested in knowing the Creator behind it all.

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• Time-and-time again, throughout the New Testament, we read of the religious ones who thought they knew God because they knew so much, when their arrogance and self-sufficiency, caused them miss God even when he was standing in their midst.

• They couldn’t admit that they needed help. And they didn’t just end up rejecting some idea, But they ended up rejecting Jesus.

• The way to know God, is not a mystery or a riddle.

• Jesus alone is the source.

• And the type rest he offers is like none other.

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B: RECEIVE HIS REST \\ THE TYPE OF REST

The word here for rest, both verse 28… “give you rest” and then in 29… “find rest for your souls" doesn’t simply mean a form of inactivity and putting your feet up, that you can be justified to embark upon a perpetual Netflix binge.

• This isn’t just the cessation of work, even though Jesus goes on in chapter 12, to affirm our need and privilege to rest from work.

• But that’s not what is in focus here. It’s much more profound than that.

• The rest that Jesus is alluding here, is comprehensive, it refreshes us, and enables us to press on as his disciples.

• It’s rest that provides a comprehensive joy living in God’s world, with an assurance that everything that tarnishes this world is sorted for eternity.

• In Genesis 2, we get a glimpse of that, as God rested from creation, humankind was always mean to find our true rest in him.

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• But as sin entered the world, and that relationship was broken, so too was our work and our rest, and part of the whole grand story of the Bible, is longing for that time when relationship will be restored, and that we’ll find our ultimate rest in God once more.

• That’s what Jesus fulfils! That’s what Jesus means to find rest for your souls!

• That we can be refreshed this very day, because we’re: looking forward to that day when there will be no more pandemics, no more disappointment, no more isolation, no more illness, no more death.

• And that even as we experience the pain of our world right now, that we can even already experience God’s rest, as Jesus is present with us amidst the mess.

Recently, I was speaking to someone who has been undergoing an incredible period of difficulty in their life. It has affected almost every facet of their life: their work, family, study, and recreation. Yet even amidst difficulty, they said that even amidst their challenges, they had found an extraordinary refreshment in God, because more aware of their own weakness, they pushed more into Jesus’ strength.

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We live in a culture, totally characterised by busyness, we idolise the hustle, to the extent that we’ve even become masters of making hustle out of rest!

• But the tragedy is, that sometimes in our busyness, sometimes in our perpetual running of the race, that we can be so distracted by things of temporal importance, so busy chasing success, dreams, recognition, and status, even chasing the most attractive insta-worthy envy-invoking recreation, that we are distracted, we push out, the one voice that matters.

• The one who says, come to me and I will give you rest.

• Don’t tune out the voice of Jesus. Don’t let the volume of your life overshadow his voice.

• Because Jesus says, the only way you will find that true rest, is not in the pursuit of the world, but in the pursuit of me.

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C: TAKE UP HIS YOKE \\ THE WAY OF REST VV.29-30

The WAY of rest, is by taking up his yoke. That might sound totally counter-intuitive, but look, verse 29…

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.” (vv.29-30)

The yoke was a wooden beam with braces, that would be typically fitted across the shoulders of two animals so that they could pull something like a plough.

• They were yoked to that work. They were connected to it. They couldn’t escape from it.

• Which meant, that ‘being yoked’ as well as that technical agricultural definition, also had taken on the meaning of being in submission to an authority of some kind.

• Many rabbis, Jewish teachers of Jesus’ time, spoke sincerely and lovingly, about being yoked, being in submission, the authority of the Law. But whilst that may have been a delight to some of the teachers of the Law, for the common person, it was a heavy burden, as arbitrary demands and long lists of rules and regulations, were created by Pharisaic legalism.

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• Whilst some delighted in such matters, it was for most an ever-increasing weight heaped upon their backs.

• Even in Acts, after Jesus had ascended, some of the Pharisees said that followers of Jesus should follow all the OT Laws.

• That fulfilment of rules was the way to God, but Peter says:

…why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” (Acts 15:10)

• Jesus says, yes, it is time to get “Yoked Up”, but not to a set of rules, but to me! It’s not of course that how we live doesn’t matter, Jesus’ commands, were more challenging than many of the former Laws, but our capacity to follow them is not the means of our salvation, but an expression that we are saved. //

• Jesus has invited us, the yoke is there, ready for us to take it up, and hitch our lives to him! It’s a burden of love! And as we take that yoke, he wants us to learn from him. That we would keep connected to him, delight in him, not wander from him. That he would be our teacher, and that we would be like a child ready to soak everything up! I wonder, in this strange time, what are you learning from Jesus?

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I have to admit that whilst I’m quick to ask the kids what they’ve learnt from school, and they’re quick to respond(!), I only occasionally reflect on what I’m learning from the ultimate teacher.

• But being yoked is not just about learning from Jesus, but also serving him. It’s to his authority were yoked. It’s to his authority that we submit.

• Being yoked to Jesus is neither painful drudgery, nor careless ease, but joyful service.

• For when you’re yoked to Jesus, when you’re connected to him, you’re free from always wondering if you’ve done enough, you’re free from relentlessly trying to figure everything out, you’re free from pretending that you’ve got everything sorted, you’re free from an uncertain future, you’re free to delight in the hope we have in him, you’re free to submit to his authority, because he is gentle and humble in heart.

• That even though that Jesus is rightly the one with all authority, he’s not a maniacal tyrant, working us into the ground like some mean-spirited boss, but he’s our loving Lord who for us even went to the cross. That’s why you can trust him.

• The reason why Jesus’ yoke is easy, and his burden is light, is because he's already done the heavy lifting!

• And when you’re yoked to him, you find someone who is trustworthy and true, who will give you the rest + refreshment you need, because it springs from his character and grace.

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We live in a busy world. Are you weary and burdened?

• We can wear our busyness like a badge of honour. We can refuse to admit that we actually need help. We can even chase after rest in ways that just don’t satisfy. We sometimes just don't even stop to consider where to go.

• But there is one who can satisfy, who, as Augustine said, O Lord our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.

The only way that you can know true rest, is by going to the one who gives it. It’s not rest that’s earned. It’s rest that’s given. Have you come to Jesus?

• You might say, well, I’ve been learning more about Jesus. I’ve been joining in at church more now that it’s online. I’m reading more of the Bible than ever before. I’m currently doing Ridley and I’ve really been expanding my knowledge.

• And I want to say, that’s great! That’s so good. But that’s not the same. You can know a lot about God, but that’s not the same as knowing him.

• You’ve got to come to him. He’s invited you. It’s an offer too good to refuse.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

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