Weary and Burdened: Find True Rest in Jesus

Gracious God, as the Bible is read and taught to us today, deliver us from

unbelief and disobedience. Help us to exhort and encourage one another, that

none may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Produce in us the

fruit of your Spirit, for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Rest, real rest, can be hard to find. The Mental Health First Aid website reports

61% of workers in Australia are feeling burnt out and that means they're

feeling tired, they're feeling burdened, they're feeling weary. And even if the

statistic is wrong, it's still a large amount. We feel the burden of work,

whether that's paid work or unpaid work. Maybe it's not work that's making you

feel tired and weary, maybe it's the constant navigation of family life,

relationships with children, grandchildren, parents can wear you down.

Maybe it's your health or your financial situation. Many people today are longing

for rest. Some people, they will look to holidays for rest. Yet it's my experience

that many holidays are not restful. The stress of travel, the busyness of the

itinerary, the comment after the holidays, I need a holiday to have a break from my

holidays, is all too common. There's a whole industry at the moment that wants

you to be restful. Mindfulness retreats, spas, the minimalist movement, but actually

these can be a heavy burden in themselves. Rules to follow, practices to

do, and they too, like holidays, don't bring the rest that people really want,

that people are really craving. Well Jesus today makes an invitation. He says,

come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. We're

going to explore today how we can find that rest in Jesus. Now for a bit of

context of this passage, we want to place Jesus' words, come to me all who

are weary and burdened and I will give you rest, in the Gospel of Matthew.

Because as we do that, that's going to help us to unpack what Jesus means when

he says, come and rest. And the Gospel of Matthew is all about Jesus. If we were to

read the previous 11 chapters, we would see that Jesus was born with the great

expectations of fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies. We would see

visitations of angels, we would see promises that Jesus is going to be God

with us, who is going to forgive our sins. We would see how Jesus resisted the

temptations of the devil, taught with the authority of God, has done miracles that

only God could do. He's cleansed incurable diseases, healed the paralytic, cured the

sick, calmed the storm on the Lake of Galilee, cast out demons, showed he has

power over the evil spiritual realm. He's forgiven a person's sin, raised a person

from the dead. He's made the deaf hear and the blind see. All this and we're only up

to chapter 11. And so when John the Baptist, at the beginning of chapter 11,

asks of Jesus, are you the one to come? Jesus says, well look at what has been

happening. And then Jesus gives us these words in verse 15. He who has ears, let

them hear. Now I'm looking at you all at this moment and I'm seeing that everyone

has ears. So are you listening? That's the context. And then Jesus gives us a

grave warning and a life-giving invitation. A grave warning and a

life-giving invitation. First the grave warning. The grave warning are for those

who do not have ears to hear, that do not see that Jesus is the one to come. And

Jesus uses two illustrations to help us understand. The first is in verse 17.

We've played the flute for you but you did not dance. They've missed their moment.

Instead of joy and celebration there is nothing. At home we sometimes play the

game Just Dance. It's a game where you follow the dance moves on the screen for

points. And it's like the music starts, the dance is meant to start, but you just

sit there watching the screen and you don't join in. Jesus is saying his

generation did not dance. Or the second illustration. We sang a dirge and you did

not mourn. A dirge is a sad song and many people were mourning yesterday's

Australia's loss in the World Cup. Imagine being among those who are

mourning that loss but being the one who is cheering. Both illustrations

highlight inappropriate responses, inappropriate reactions. And Jesus then

highlights that people are having an inappropriate response to firstly John

the Baptist but then also to Jesus. In verse 18, John came neither eating nor

drinking and they say he has a demon. Wrong response. Similar in verse 19, the

Son of Man, which is Jesus' way of speaking about himself, came eating and

drinking and they say here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors

and sinners. You're doomed if you do, you're doomed if you don't. But once

again, wrong response. It's kind of like Forrest Gump when he meets the President

of the United States and he asks where the bathroom is. He does not respond to

the situation correctly. Well Jesus is telling us that his generation, the

generation that got to see and hear Jesus, they have the wrong response to

him. They do not have ears to hear. The generation of Jesus are criticizing but

they should be rejoicing. They're accusing but they should be worshiping.

And Jesus is saying the whole generation is like this. They're responding the

wrong way to Jesus, to God's King who will save the world from sin. And so

Jesus says but wisdom is proved right by her deeds. Jesus' miracles, Jesus'

teaching should have led people to repentance, to turn from their sin, to

come to him. But that's not what happens. And so Jesus gives a grave warning and

it's grave because it leads to death, a spiritual death. Verse 20, then Jesus

began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed

because they did not repent. Jesus performed miracles, they did not marvel.

Jesus taught with authority, they did not listen. Jesus called out their sin, they

did not repent. And so Jesus says well Tyre and Sidon will be better off than

you. Now that's an insult. Verse 21, woe to you Corazon, 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. Now Tyre and Sidon

probably don't mean much to you as they didn't really mean much to me until I

had a look at who they were. In the Old Testament these were godless nations

that set themselves up against God's people. They were judged by God for their

sin. And yet Jesus is saying that these godless nations of Tyre and Sidon, had

they seen the ministry of Jesus, they would have repented. And so in verse 22

they would be better off than this current generation. Or in verse 23, and you

Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.

Hades is the place of death. For if the miracles that were performed in you had

been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. It's a grave

warning. Sodom, you can read all about the sin of Sodom in Genesis. Our word

sodomy comes from this town. Had they witnessed the amazing situation of Jesus

being among them, his miracles, his teachings, what Jesus' generation is

seeing and hearing, they would have repented. But not Jesus' generation. Jesus

is amazing, but so many people do not have ears to hear. I wonder if Jesus'

generation is similar to our generation here in Australia. A generation that

hears of Jesus' miracles, but does not marvel. A generation who knows Jesus'

teaching, but does not listen. There's a whole generation of Australians that have

grown up going to Sunday school, attending scripture in schools, have been

coming along to church, were baptized, confirmed, married in church, that have

turned away from Jesus. They now have a skepticism that can never be appeased, it

seems, or an apathy that thinks Jesus doesn't matter. This is the generation

that is no longer in our churches. The song is played, but they do not dance. The

dirge is sung, but they do not cry. Jesus invites them to come, but they turn away.

And here's the sad thing, this generation that has turned away from Jesus is that

they're seeking rest in the things of this world that cannot deliver. People

turn to money, to working more hours, to working harder to appease their unrest.

They turn to idols like the perfect relationship, or the perfect self-image,

or the perfect superannuation figure, or to an addiction that never satisfies. And

the thing about all these idols is that rather than soothe their soul and give

them rest, torment and accuse them, and they make them work ever harder every

day to something that the idol can never give. To turn away from Jesus is a grave

mistake, not only because it leads to judgment, but because it means turning

away from the one who can bring true rest. See, the problem of rest is a

spiritual problem. It's not just an earthly one. And so we can be glad that

Jesus gives us a life-giving invitation. As we look at verse 25, we see why Jesus

is able to make the life-giving invitation that he does. It's because of

who Jesus is. Jesus prays to the Father, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and

earth. And then he praises God that salvation doesn't go to those who work

hard, but to those who receive it as a child would. Those who humbly come to him.

This was the Father's pleasure. The entry into the kingdom of heaven is not based

on how many hours you work, the amount of money you have, how many rosters you're

on at church. But it rests solely on Jesus. And this is because Jesus reveals to us

God the Father. Have a look at what Jesus says in verse 27. And these are amazing

words. 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. And the first thing to note here is the

relationship between the Father and the Son. Only the Father truly knows the Son

and only the Son truly knows the Father. This is the Trinity at work. God is one.

And yet in the Bible God reveals to us that while he is one, he's also three

persons. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And in these verses we

see part of this reality. The Father knows the Son perfectly, the Son knows

the Father perfectly, because they are one. They're not getting to know each

other, they know each other perfectly. In marriage we use the metaphor of one

flesh of two becoming one. But even in a healthy marriage relationship, the couples

are still getting to know one another, learning from each other. They might know

each other really well, but they don't know each other perfectly. Jesus and the

Father know each other perfectly, because they are one. And Jesus, and this is the

second thing we need to know, reveals to us God the Father. Jesus, as he lives in

his perfect humanity, living as humans were created to live in perfect

relationship with God, reveals to us our Heavenly Father. So if we want to get to

know God, we have to get to know Jesus, because Jesus is God, he's part of the

Trinity, and he shows us what God is like. Through all the amazing things that

Jesus did and taught, we see God. It's like when you go to a show and they pull

back the curtains and reveal the stage. Jesus pulls back the curtains so that we

can know God. And it is this Jesus that invites us to come and rest in him. And

even as Jesus makes this invitation to rest, he makes it knowing that he has

perfect rest in the Father. Even though his life was somewhat tumultuous, he had

that perfect spiritual rest, and he invites us to come and to rest in him.

Verse 28, come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.

Now why can Jesus say this? It's because Jesus is the one who brings us into

relationship with God. Only Jesus gives us the spiritual rest that we need.

See, our society says if you want something, you have to work for it. You want to rest

for retirement, you have to work for it. If you want to get to heaven, you have to

live a good life. If you want security, you have to work hard for it. But Jesus

says, if you're tired and weary, come to me and I will give you rest. Jesus does

not say if you've got life all together, if you're on top of the world, come to me

and I can give you rest. No, he says come to me all who are weary, burdened. At the

point where we know that we need rest that comes from somewhere else other than our own

efforts. See, the rest that Jesus offers doesn't rely on you or me, but it relies on him.

And so Jesus says in verse 29, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. A yoke in the

first century was a farming tool. It was a wooden beam placed across farming animals,

which would then be attached to the farming equipment and be used a bit like a tractor,

probably somewhat more inefficient than our tractors today. But to carry a yoke was to

bear a load. And Jesus is saying, take his yoke, take his load, learn from him, be his

disciple. Because it's a good yoke. Jesus is gentle and lowly, he's humble. And Jesus

says when we take his yoke upon us, in verse 29, we will find rest for our souls, that

spiritual rest. That means that we don't have to work for our forgiveness before God.

We don't have to work for our relationship with God. We don't have to bear the burden

of our own sin and rebellion. But we can have true rest with God when we take Jesus yoke

upon us. And this is where we need to go to the end of the gospel. Jesus in humility and

gentleness, he gave his life for our sin. For all those times we've responded incorrectly

to the God of the universe, where we have rebelled and wanted to do things our own way.

Jesus died on the cross for our sin in our place. He took the judgment from God that

we deserve. He serves us on the cross by crying out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken

me? He did that for us. And he did that to show us God's love, to show us his gentleness,

his humility, and to make a way for us to experience eternal rest. And this yoke, Jesus

says in verse 30, is easy and it's light. It's an easy yoke to bear, to carry, because

it doesn't rely on us, but on him. When we accept Jesus as invitation, it's freeing.

It's like sitting in an airplane. Once you're seated, you don't have to do anything. You

just sit there, you let the plane and the pilot do its work, and you get transported

from one destination to another. You just sit back and relax. Well, Jesus is like that.

We come and rest in him, and we don't have to do anything. We don't have to try and work

for God's acceptance. We let Jesus do all the heavy lifting, and we come along for the

ride.

Sometimes being a Christian doesn't feel very restful. Sometimes serving at church can feel

like a thankless task, a burdensome and weary one even. If you're in a position where you're

serving, it can become discouraging, particularly when people say maybe some unthoughtful things.

But for us, as Christians even, who are feeling weary, who are feeling burdened, who are feeling

burnt out, who are feeling discouraged, Jesus says, come to me and I will give you rest.

His yoke is easy, his burden is light. We need to come back to him time and time again

and rest in him. And he will give us assurance time and time again that our forgiveness,

that our status before God is found in him, and that we are to rest in Jesus and not our

works or service.

It's easy to think that salvation is by grace. Salvation happens when we put our faith in

Jesus Christ. But then once we're saved, we somehow have to then keep doing things to

keep that. We have to tick all these boxes, or serve in this area, or do this and do that.

That's a mistake. We're saved by grace and we live by grace. We don't earn barony points

with God by anything that we do, or don't do as the case may be. No, instead we come

and we find rest in Jesus. That's what it is to have ears to hear. It's to listen to

Jesus' invitation to come to him and find rest.

So today we've seen a grave warning and a life-giving invitation. Don't let Jesus'

invitation fall on deaf ears, but come to Jesus, the one who gives us life and rest

in him. Jesus says, come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for Jesus' invitation to us, to come to him, to find

rest for our souls. And we ask, Lord, that you would give us ears to hear, to accept

that invitation and to rest in Jesus. To not rely on our own works or efforts, but on Jesus'

death for us. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.