When Religion Misses the Point

The scripture reading comes from the book of Matthew chapter 11 and 12.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

Please follow along on the bulletin or your own Bible.

Starting in verse 28 we read,

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath.

His disciples were hungry and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.

But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him,

Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

He said to them,

Have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him?

How he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence,

which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him,

but only for the priests?

Or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath

the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless?

I tell you, something greater than the temple is here,

and if you had known what this means,

I desire mercy and not sacrifice,

you would not have condemned the guiltless,

for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

This is the Word of God.

Great. Thank you, Celeste.

Let's see if I can sort this out.

Okay, good morning, everyone.

Great. Good to see so many of you.

And it's great to be back in Matthew's Gospel.

I don't know if you realize this,

but we started Matthew's Gospel three years ago,

and then we took a long break,

and we picked it up again earlier this year,

and then we took some more breaks,

and we're back in Matthew's Gospel,

and we're going to just keep on working through it.

And it might take us five years,

but it's so good to be back there.

Let me pray for us,

and then we're going to dive into this passage.

So, Father God, once again,

once again, God,

we come and we quieten ourselves.

We still ourselves.

We come to your Word.

Your Word, God,

which for 2,000 years and more

has spoken life to so many people

in every country,

in every culture,

in every corner of the globe,

God, your Word has brought us face to face

with King Jesus.

And Lord, we ask you to do that again this morning.

We ask God that you give us clarity

about who you are and who we are in you.

We ask God that you come and speak to us.

God, won't you both encourage us and challenge us?

And ultimately, won't you bring us to the feet of Jesus?

Won't you help us to love you and trust you and obey you?

Christ, come and have your way.

In your wonderful and your gracious name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

I grew up in South Africa,

many of you will know,

and in South Africa,

one of the sports that South Africans love to play

is the game of rugby.

Okay?

I don't know how much you know about rugby.

You might say it's kind of like American football,

but not.

Sorry, Bernard and any other Australians or New Zealanders.

But so you've got this field

and there's two posts on either end

and there's a halfway line

and the one team's got to get the ball to the other side

and kind of put it down in the end goal area.

Okay?

But the thing with rugby is there are all these lines in the field.

So there's the halfway line,

then there's the 10-meter line,

then there's the 22-meter line,

the 5-meter line,

and eventually the tri-line.

Okay?

So it can be a bit confusing sometimes.

And I have a good friend.

His name is Greg.

And when we were at school one day,

Greg played on the wing,

which means he was pretty fast,

and his job was to get the ball

and then sprint down the wing as fast as he could

and get it over the tri-line.

And so he's playing,

and his team's got the ball,

and they're passing along,

passing along,

and eventually they pass the ball to him,

and Greg reckons this is his moment to shine.

And so he puts his head down,

arm under the ball,

and he runs like crazy down the line.

And he sees the line in front of him,

and he thinks this is his moment of glory.

And so he thinks all the TV cameras are on him,

and he dives this glorious,

like, super sport dive,

puts the ball down,

throws it up in the air,

and cheers.

Yeah!

And he catches the ball again,

and the opposition just come

and tackle him down to the ground.

And I'm sure you can guess what happened.

He dived over the wrong line, right?

And so he was still in the field of play,

and he thought he was on the tri-line,

and he celebrated like Cristiano Ronaldo,

and he had completely dived over the wrong line,

and it was all for nothing.

I'll tell you that story

because this morning the passage we're going to look at

is very similar,

but in a very dissimilar way.

It tells us,

this morning we're going to look at a passage

that shows us how dangerous it is

and what it's like when we're confused

about what's real and what's false,

about what it looks like in our Christian lives

when we get confused about the reality of who God is

and what he's called us to do.

This morning we're talking about when religion misses the point.

And so look at what's happening in the passage here today.

Matthew tells us that Jesus is walking with his disciples

through some grain fields.

It's on the Saturday morning,

which is, of course, the Sabbath,

and the disciples are a little hungry.

It's still a little while until yamcha,

and so they're picking the heads of grain,

and they are snacking to get them through to lunchtime, okay?

And while they do this,

some Pharisees who are the religious leaders,

they see what's going on,

and they are freaking out.

And so they protest at Jesus.

They throw their hands in the air.

Jesus, what are your disciples doing?

Look at what they say in verse 2.

Jesus, your disciples are doing

what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

Now, the issue here is not that the disciples

are stealing some farmer's grain.

In the Old Testament, God made a law

that said the farmers, when they harvest their crops,

they're not to harvest the whole field.

They're to leave the edges

so that the poor and the marginalized,

especially widows or orphans or foreigners,

can pick up some of the food.

So the issue is not that they're taking some farmer's food.

The issue is that they are doing this on the Sabbath.

On the Sabbath.

Now, why is that an issue?

Well, in the Old Testament,

God commanded His people to keep the Sabbath day holy.

Remember, we looked at this last year

when we did the Ten Commandments.

It's a day, the purpose of observing the Sabbath

was threefold.

Firstly, it's a day of rest and no work.

No work to be done.

Secondly, it's a day of community worship,

of worshiping God, of filling your souls

with who God is, revitalizing,

and filling your souls,

delighting in who God is.

And these two things together,

no work and community worship,

lead us to the third thing.

The point of the Sabbath

was to remind God's people,

as well as the nations around them,

that God's people,

their future and their provision

and their safety and their security

was not in their hard work

or their abundance of their productivity,

but in who God was

and who they were in God.

So when all the other nations around them

are working seven days a week,

are harvesting their crops,

are picking up their swords and their shields

and defending themselves,

when all the other nations are saying,

our future depends on our hands,

God built this once a week rhythm

into play in the nation of Israel

so that once a week they're reminded,

our future doesn't depend on us,

Israel does not depend on hard work alone,

but the grace and the faithfulness of God.

Okay, so these three things,

no work, community worship,

delighting in God,

and a reminder that they're God's people

and that their life and their safety

depends not on themselves,

but on who God is.

And this is so important

that the people of God know and remember

and build this into their weekly rhythm,

that they're God's people,

not their own,

that observing the Sabbath

was a matter of life and death.

In the Old Testament,

to break the Sabbath

was a capital offense.

You could be put to death for it.

It was so serious,

and the reason it's so serious

is because Israel knows

that not only individuals' lives,

but the nation's life or death

depends on their faithfulness

to who God is

and finding their identity

and security in God.

And so Israel knows

that if the people of Israel

forsake God

and start taking matters

into their own hands,

if they start thinking,

God doesn't have us,

we've got ourselves,

or our future's in our hands,

Israel's in trouble.

But if they can remain faithful to God

and constantly,

week by week,

say,

Lord,

our life is not in our hands,

it's in you,

they will flourish.

And so the nation of Israel,

it's a matter of life and death.

As they trust God,

they're going to flourish

and grow in life.

As they trust themselves,

they're going to move towards death.

And so what happened is that when,

and so,

for the observance of the Sabbath

is like the quintessential symbol

of whether Israel is trusting God

or trusting in themselves.

Now,

the prime example of this,

of course,

of Israel trusting in themselves

and things going badly

is when Israel go to Babylon.

Remember,

we looked at this in the Daniel series.

For 70 years,

the nation of Israel

has marched off to Babylon.

They're slaves there in exile.

Babylon is mastering over them.

And all this is because

they've abandoned God.

And the prophets constantly say,

they pick up on this thing

of you've abandoned the Sabbath.

Rather than trusting and delighting God,

you've trusted and delighted in yourself.

And because of this,

we're ending up in Babylon.

And now 700 years fast forward,

Israel's in the same position.

Except now,

it's not Babylon who's mastering them,

it's the Romans.

The Romans have got Israel

under enemy occupation, right?

And so,

for Israel,

the sign that the Romans

are on top of them

is the sign

that they've abandoned God,

they've forsaken His ways,

they've trusted themselves,

and they are now in deep trouble.

And so,

the Pharisees,

the religious leaders

who hate the Romans,

their big idea is,

we've got to do everything we can

to get Israel

to return to God.

For the Pharisees,

returning to God,

returning to obedience,

taking God's laws seriously,

is the way to freedom

and the way to get rid of the Romans.

Because if Israel can take God's word seriously,

if they can return to Him

rather than themselves,

if they can trust in Him

rather than themselves,

God will raise up a deliverer,

a mighty king like David,

who will overthrow the Romans

and bring freedom and deliverance.

If Israel can return to God

rather than trusting in themselves,

the temple will be cleaned

and God's presence will come down.

If Israel can return to God

rather than trusting in themselves,

all the great and glorious promises

that God had spoken in His Old Testament

will be fulfilled.

And so,

the Pharisees have read the Old Testament.

They've read things like

Isaiah chapter 2

Isaiah 2 · chapter mention

that says,

God is going to restore Israel

like a mighty mountain

and all the nations of the world

will flood

to the highest mountain on earth.

Now,

have you ever read Isaiah chapter 60

Isaiah 60 · chapter mention

that says,

behold,

the light is going to shine on you

and the kings of the earth

are going to be drawn to your dawn.

And so,

the Pharisees are looking around them

and saying,

we are not obeying God.

We're not working hard enough.

We're not obeying the Sabbath.

Because of immoral people

like you disciples

that are breaking God's law,

these Romans are occupying us

and now we end the enemy occupation.

And so,

the Pharisees aren't just trying

to be religious nerds

or legalistics

or moralists.

They deeply want Israel

to be restored,

the promises of God

that He's spoken

in the Old Testament

to come to pass.

For them,

it's a matter of life

and death.

Israel's life

or Israel's death.

And so,

the Sabbath

is like the picture

of who Israel's trusting,

themselves or God.

In fact,

the Sabbath

was so important

that a couple of times

in Israel's history,

about a hundred years

before Jesus comes,

the Jews are being attacked

by another nation.

And the nation attacks them

on the Sabbath.

But the Jews figure,

it's the Sabbath day.

Rather be attacked

by our enemies

than coming to God's judgment.

And so,

they all put down their swords,

they put down their shields,

they open up the city gates,

and the enemy march in

and desecrate them.

They'd rather be killed

by the enemy

than fall under God's judgment.

It's a matter

of life and death.

Okay,

this is all kind of background.

We're getting to the passage.

Now,

to make sure

that nobody

in any possible way,

whether voluntarily

or involuntarily,

would break

the Sabbath commandments,

the Jewish leaders

came up with a list

of 39 categories of work

that no one

was allowed to do

on the Sabbath.

And each of those categories

have like

between three

and ten rules

forbidding certain things

that you can do.

Okay?

So,

for instance,

you got a glass of water,

you can't throw the water

out the window

because the water

may fall on some plants

and then you water

your crops

and then that's breaking

the Sabbath.

Okay?

One of the laws said

that if you got a building

and a wall

falls down,

okay,

the side of your building

falls down

and there are people

that are trapped underneath,

if they're still alive,

you can rescue them

because that's life or death

but if they're dead,

you can't touch it.

It's the Sabbath.

You've got to leave it

until the next day

to go and restore

the dead bodies.

Okay?

So,

there are all these

hundreds of rules,

39 categories

times 10 different rules,

hundreds of rules

of what you can

and can't do

on the Sabbath.

And this,

as we said,

isn't because they're

just trying to be

legalistic.

They so absolutely

want to make sure

that they are honoring God.

But here's what happened.

Okay?

This is the key

to understanding

this passage.

Invariably what happened

is that what was meant

to be a gift

of God's grace,

okay,

don't open your emails,

don't open your computer,

put away your phone,

don't check social media,

don't work,

quieten your soul,

focus on God.

What was meant

to be a gift of grace,

turned into a system

of rules.

Don't do this,

don't do this,

don't water the plants,

don't get in your car,

don't turn on the lights.

Okay?

And what became

a system of rules

turned into a system

of righteousness.

Who was in

and who was out?

Who was righteous

and who was a sinner?

Who was good

in God's eyes

and who was bad?

And so the person

that throws the water

out the window

is an unrighteous sinner.

But the person

that sits quietly

at home

and doesn't do anything,

well,

they're good

in God's eyes.

And the person

that gets in their car

to go to the shops,

oh,

what a wicked,

evil person.

But the person

that stays at home,

oh,

they must be really

God-honoring,

God-fearing.

And so what is meant

to be a gift of grace

becomes a system

of rules

and the system

of rules

becomes a system

of who's in

and who's out,

a system

of righteousness.

And so look

what happens here

with the Pharisees.

They see the disciples

of Jesus

and they see them

doing something

that they consider

a flagrant breaking

of the rules,

like rule 37

or something.

And look at what

they're doing.

They're breaking

four rules.

They are reaping,

okay,

they're picking

the harvest.

They are winnowing,

which means they're

breaking the stalk

off the head.

They are threshing,

which means they're

taking the husk

away from the actual core.

And they're preparing

a meal.

Four of these

great rules

of the Pharisees

that these disciples

are breaking.

And now they look

at Jesus and say,

Jesus,

you meant to be a rabbi

and your disciples

are breaking the rules.

Just what kind

of rabbi

are you?

So what is Jesus

going to say?

What is Jesus

going to say?

Well,

Jesus gives them

three replies,

all from the

scriptures,

to show them

how they've dived

over the wrong

trial line.

He's showing them

that though they

are fastidious

in their rules

and their regulations,

they've completely

missed the whole point.

Look what Jesus

says in verse

three to five.

He says to them,

have you not read

what David did

when he was hungry

and those who

were with him,

how he entered

into the house

of God

and ate the bread

of the presence,

which is not lawful

for him to do,

nor for those

who are with him,

but only for the

priests.

Now,

Jesus is being

a little cheeky

here because he

says,

haven't you read

your Old Testament?

But the Pharisees

haven't just read

the Old Testament,

they've memorized

the whole thing,

they know it off

by heart.

So he's kind of

digging at them

a little bit.

And he's saying

to them,

don't you remember

Samuel 21,

right?

When David,

King David,

are with his

band of soldiers.

Now,

the story here

is that David

has been anointed

king of Israel.

He's not on the

throne yet,

Saul is still

on the throne,

but David's been

anointed.

He's the king

elect.

And Saul is

jealous because

of David.

And so Saul

wants to kill

him.

And so David

and his friends

run into the

wilderness,

they flee from

Saul's army.

And while they're

in the wilderness,

they run out of

food,

but they walk

past the

tabernacle.

Now,

the tabernacle

is a precursor

to the temple.

And they know

that inside

the tabernacle

is a whole lot

of bread.

It's the holy

bread that the

priests bake

every day and

put there as a

kind of offering

to God.

And so David

goes to the

priests and

says,

listen,

we hungry,

we need some

bread,

we know there's

some bread in

there,

can we eat

the holy

bread?

And the

priests

deliberate a

bit,

I'm not so

sure,

this is breaking

the law.

But David

says,

listen,

it's a matter

of life and

death.

And so they're

okay.

And they give

David the

holy bread.

And David

and his

friends eat

it.

And Jesus

says,

what does God

say about

this?

Is David

condemned?

Is he written

off as this

unrighteous

sinner?

The scripture

says nothing.

It doesn't

condemn him as a

heretic.

It doesn't

write him off as

a sinner.

It doesn't

moan about him as

breaking God's

law.

God's word

says nothing

about this

flagrant breaking

of the law.

Why?

Because it's a

matter of life

and death.

God knows

that David's

men,

their life is

more important

than the

technicalities

of the law.

But what does

scripture say

about David?

It says that

he's a man

after God's

own heart.

A man

after God's

own heart.

And Jesus

points that if

the great

king David

committed a

far greater

breach of the

Sabbath laws when

he was in need

when it really

was life and

death,

well then you've

got to extend a

bit of grace to

these disciples

themselves.

Now, if you

are one of the

Pharisees, what

do you say to

this?

Well I imagine

the Pharisees

have probably

said something

like, okay,

good point.

But, that's

David, right?

David is the

greatest king

Israel ever

had.

David is the

great rescuer,

the redeemer,

the restorer of

Israel.

David is the

guy who brought

us peace and

security.

When all our

enemies were

attacking us,

David is the

one guy that

brought Israel

the most peace.

David is the

greatest king

we've ever had.

Jesus, who

are you?

And that's the

question, isn't

it?

Jesus, who

are you?

Well, Jesus

doesn't answer the

question because

Jesus goes on and

he tells them another

example.

He says, well

consider the fact

that on the

Sabbath, when

everyone's meant

to be resting

from work, when

everyone's meant

to be worshipping

God, who is

running around

crazy working

hard?

It's the

priests.

The priests are

meant to be the

most sanctimonious,

the most religious,

the most dedicated

to God.

And yet they're the

one people that on

the Sabbath day are

running around working

doubly hard.

And what does

scripture say about

them?

Does God condemn

them?

No, he doesn't.

Because the

reality of

worship trumps

the regulations

about the

Sabbath.

The gift of

grace is a

means to an

end, not an

end in itself.

The purpose of

the Sabbath is

to promote

worship, not

to be

worshipped.

It promotes

rest and

faithfulness, joy,

not regulations

and rituals and

levels of

righteousness.

righteousness.

The Sabbath is

meant to lead

us to Christ,

not meant to be

a scorecard by

which we measure

how righteous

we are.

Jesus says that

worship trumps

ritual any day

of the week.

Now, if you're

the Pharisees,

what do you say

to that?

Say, okay,

good point.

But, those

are the

priests.

I mean, the

priests are

those that are

anointed and

set apart for

God's service.

the priests

are the ones

that bring us

forgiveness of

sins and

offer sacrifice

and offering.

If the priests

stop doing their

work, who's

going to bring

us forgiveness?

Who's going to

atone for our

guilt?

Who's going to

offer the

sacrifices and

the offerings?

If the priests

stop doing their

work, Israel's

in trouble.

Jesus, we need

the priests, but

Jesus, who are

you?

And Jesus

gives them an

answer, which

may sound

simple and

well-established

to us, but

if you're

first-century

Israel, it

is a

bombshell.

Jesus says

something that

is so

provocative, so

blasphemous, that

it gets the

hair on the

back of the

neck standing

up.

Look at what

Jesus says in

verse 6.

He says,

I tell you

the truth,

something greater

than the

temple is here.

Now, if you're

first-century

Jew, that is

like the worst

thing in the

whole world that

you can say,

right?

The temple is

the one place

where God's

presence dwells.

The temple is

the one place

that is so

holy, so

sacred, that

the high priest

can only go in

there in the

holy place once

a year.

The temple is

the place where

the Shekinah

glory of God

dwells.

Remember when

Uzzah, the

cart, the

ark is being

brought back to

Israel, Uzzah

reaches out and

touches it and

he falls down

dead because

God's glory

strikes him?

Well, the

temple is the

place where

God's glory

dwells.

It's heaven

on earth and

Jesus, this

man whose

disciples are

breaking his

Sabbath rules,

says,

something greater

than the

temple is in

your midst.

Me.

What's Jesus

saying?

He's saying

all those

sacrifices, all

those offerings,

all the

thousands of

rules that are

all surrounded

the temple are

ultimately found

in me.

And if you

don't come to

me, if you

obey all those

rules but you

don't come to

me, you've

missed the

point completely.

Jesus doesn't

say it, but I

think the

disciples would

have picked

up on it,

someone greater

than David is

here.

David, the

great king of

Israel who

brought peace

and security,

the true and

better David is

here.

David, the

great king, the

redeemer and the

restorer, the

one that fought

off their enemies

and brought peace

and security,

Jesus is the

true and better

David is here.

In other words,

if you have a

thousand Davids in

your midst, a

thousand great

kings and leaders

and rescuers and

restorers, but you

have not me, you

have nothing.

You see what

Jesus is saying?

Jesus is saying

that everything in

the Old Testament,

all the writings,

all the rules,

all the promises,

all the hopes,

everything the

Pharisees longed

for and were

praying for and

hoping for, all

of it comes down

to him.

In the New

Testament book of

Colossians, the

Apostle Paul writes

this in chapter 2

verse 16, he

says,

Let no one pass

judgment on you

in questions of

food or drink or

with regard to a

festival or a new

moon or the

Sabbath.

These are but a

shadow of the

things to come,

but the substance

belongs to Christ.

These things are a

shadow.

It's like a

silhouette.

Have you ever

seen a silhouette

and you go up,

have you ever tried

to give a silhouette

a hug?

Or have you ever

tried to have a

conversation with

the silhouette?

It's not going to

be very fruitful.

All the thousands

of things, the

rules and the

regulations, the

Sabbath, the

sacrifices, the

offerings, the

temple, the

priests, the

thousands of

things in God's

word are all

just a shadow, a

silhouette, but the

substance is in

Jesus.

And what Jesus is

saying here is

that the Pharisees

are freaking out

because his

disciples are

breaking their

man-made rules.

They think they're

desecrating the

Sabbath because

they're making a

mockery of all

that's sacred and

holy.

And Jesus says

that the true and

ultimate embodiment

and fulfillment of

everything God's

law spoke about is

found in him.

Friends, you know

that we do the

same thing?

We can be so

busy in church.

We can run

around and we

can serve in

ICF and serve in

youth ministry and

serve in kids

ministry and serve

in the band.

We can run

around doing a

thousand things and

miss Jesus.

And we can come

to church and we

can sing the songs

and we can take

communion and we

can pray with

people afterwards

and we can miss

Jesus.

And we can be

involved in outreach

opportunities and

serve the poor and

be part of a CG

and be part of a

TG and be part of

an FG and be a

part of some

other G and do

a thousand things

and our hearts

can be cold and

numb to Jesus.

Friends, Jesus

says the true and

lasting rest is not

found in a Sabbath

or in one day of

the week.

It's found in

coming to him.

Jesus says that

peace with God is

not found in the

sacrifices and the

offerings.

It's found in

coming to him.

Jesus says that

forgiveness and

cleansing and

redemption from

judgment to come is

not found in

traveling hundreds of

miles to the

temple.

It's found in the

sacrifice and the

offering that Jesus

would offer on the

cross.

It's found in him.

And Jesus claims to

be embodiment of

everything that Israel

held sacred.

The temple, the

perfection of the

law, the Sabbath day

principle, the great

king David.

Jesus says all of

these come to me.

And therefore Jesus

is saying that

salvation, not just

from judgment and

hell, that's true,

but the life that God

offers, the fullness

of life, the

abundance of life that

Christianity preaches

and declares are not

found in any ritual or

tradition or system of

righteousness, they're

not even found in the

gifts that God gives

us, they are found in

those gifts leading us

to King Jesus.

For the Jews, the

Sabbath was a matter of

life and death, but

friends, it's so true for

us as well.

It's a matter of life

and death whether we

come to Jesus.

Sam Albury tells this

great story and I want

to share it with you.

He tells the story of he

had a friend who wanted

to become a pastor and

so he went off to

seminary.

Now seminary is like

where you train to

become a pastor.

And so his friend goes

to seminary and he's

learning all these

amazing things about the

Greek New Testament and

the Hebrew Old

Testament and these big

words and how to study

the Bible and homiletics

and all these wonderful

things and he's so proud

of himself and what he's

learning and how well he

knows the Bible.

And during one of his

school holidays, he goes

back home to his small

rural town and he goes

to church with his

family and the pastor

uses some big words

like eschatological or

something like that.

And he's so proud of

himself that he knows

what this means.

And so he turns to his

dad and he says,

Hey dad, do you know

what eschatology means?

And his dad just whispers,

isn't that when you love

Jesus very, very much?

And what his dad was

saying was, you can know

all the big words, son, but

if you don't love Jesus, it's

all a pile of nothing.

And his dad was just very

deliberately, very subtly

saying, who cares about the

big words in all your

education?

You can know the Greek and

the Hebrew.

You can know eschatology and

homiletics and soteriology and

all those things.

But if that doesn't lead you

to love Jesus, it's all for

nothing.

Friends, what about you and

I?

I know that as a church, we're

really busy and we're doing

lots of things.

We'll talk about that in a

minute.

Are God's gifts of grace like

CG and church worship and

Bible reading and prayer, are

these things leading you to

the wonder and the beauty of

Jesus?

Are these things leading you to

love and trust Jesus more?

Are these just gifts of grace

that have become rules of

regulation that are soon going

to become rules of

righteousness?

Friends, Jesus calls us back to

himself and says, what are you

doing with me?

What are you doing with me?

John Stott says that the

Pharisees were so anxious to

study what the scriptures said

that they could not see what the

scriptures meant.

And what is the meaning of

scripture?

The meaning of the scripture

is actually what Celeste read to

us in chapter 11.

Look at how Jesus puts it in

chapter 11.

He says, you who are weary and

heavy laden, you who are so

burdened by the rules of the law,

you who are so burdened by the

rules and this and that and do

this and don't do this and the

Sabbath day and this and this and

that, you who are anxious and

weary and exhausted and burnt out,

come to me.

Come to me, all you who labor and

are heavy laden and I, says Jesus,

will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn

from me for I am gentle and lowly in

heart and you will find rest for

your souls for my yoke is easy and

my burden is light.

Friends, are you exhausted or burnt

out from all your serving?

Maybe each time you walk into

church, you think to yourself, I

hope nobody asks me to do anything

today.

Or maybe worse, you walk into

church and you think, what is God

going to ask me to do today?

One more burden, one more thing

that the preacher in the front is

going to tell me to do.

One more duty to perform to be a

good Christian.

Friends, are you exhausted and

burnt out?

Do you feel like your shoulders are

weighed down by all the things that

God and church and preachers and

Christians ask you to do?

Friends, you may be extremely busy

doing a thousand things and may not

even be a Christian at all because

you've never come to Jesus and found

your rest in Him.

Jesus says, come to me.

Come to me.

Now, before we get to application, there's one

last thing we need to see in this passage and

that is Jesus gives us a clue, a hint, almost

a symptom that we can see of how we know

whether our religion is missing the point.

How we know whether we are coming to Jesus

or whether we are religious.

Because let's be honest, it's pretty hard

to tell.

Sometimes we come to church and we do all

the things and we think we're on track and

we actually have not even realized that we've

missed the point completely.

Look at what Jesus says in verse 7.

Jesus actually tells us how we know whether

we're missing Jesus or whether we are

whether we are coming to Jesus or whether

we're being religious is the way that we

treat other people.

Look what He says in verse 7.

If you had known what this means, I desire

mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have

condemned the guiltless.

Now, Jesus is quoting from Hosea chapter 6.

Hosea 6 · chapter mention

It's one of His favorite quotes.

He quotes it a couple of times throughout the

gospels.

And when Hosea says that God desires mercy,

He's not talking about the mercy we receive

from God.

He's not talking about the mercy we give to

God.

He's talking about the mercy that we extend

to one another.

What God is saying here is that you can come

to church and offer a hundred thousand

bills as sacrifice or drop a million dollars

in the offering basket.

But if you've trampled over the beggar on the

way to church or if you've screamed and

shouted at your spouse and told them what an

idiot they are and then you come and worship

Christ at church, it's all for nothing.

I desire mercy and steadfast love to the

brothers and sisters around you far more than I

desire offering and sacrifice.

And what Jesus is saying is that one of the symptoms

that we know whether we really come to Him,

whether our hearts are really trusting in Him,

whether we're loving and trusting and obeying Jesus

as opposed to ourselves, will be manifest in the way

that we treat one another.

Friends, maybe I can ask you, are you bitter and angry?

Do you sometimes come to church and you think if one

person asks one more thing of me, I swear I'm going to

snap?

Friends, maybe you've served in so many ways and you think,

I'm doing everything I have got.

I've given everything I have.

I can't give anything more.

Friends, come to Jesus.

Don't come to Him with what you've done for Him.

Come empty-handed.

Come weary and heavy-laden.

Come to Him and find your rest.

Find your identity, find your security.

Come and find your rest in Him.

This is the big idea.

Jesus says, true Sabbath rest is found not in what you do

for Him, it's found in what He's done for you.

Jesus is the true and better King, David, who brings us

true peace and security.

Jesus is the true and better sacrifice that atones for our

sin and reconciles us with God.

Jesus is the true and better offering that presents us

acceptable to God.

Jesus is the true and better Lord, the one who really tells

us how to live.

Now, what does all this mean?

Well, I've got two applications for us before we close.

One corporate for us as a church family, one individual.

The corporate one first.

Watermark family, in case you haven't noticed, we are a very

busy church.

And over the last two years, we've become even more busy.

I was just thinking this week of some of the things that we do.

As elders, we've got a weekly prayer meeting where we pray for

the church each week.

We started about a year and a half ago a monthly prayer meeting

where we as a church gather to pray together.

We are trying to take massive ground in the social justice space.

So we're doing things with safe families and single moms.

We are looking after vulnerable children.

We're trying to engage with ethnic minorities in Hong Kong.

We are serving ladies in the red light districts of Hong Kong.

We are trying to love and serve the foreign domestic workers of Hong Kong.

We are looking to start an afternoon congregation in the coming months.

We have revamped our youth ministry, and youth is going.

Our university ministry, we just heard, is kicking it out the park and doing great stuff.

We've started a couple of CGs this year.

We've started one-to-one Bible reading.

We are trying to better equip parents on how to disciple their kids.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Would you agree with me?

We are a busy church.

And we're doing this because we want to be faithful to Jesus.

We want to become the kind of church that Jesus wants us to be.

And yet the danger is what is meant to be gifts of grace that lead us to Jesus

can easily become systems of rules and regulations that then become systems of righteousness and justification.

And like the Pharisees in Jesus' day, we can be utterly convinced this is what it means to serve Jesus.

And yet we do not come to Him because we are exhausted and burnt out,

and the means of grace have become rules and regulations.

And maybe this is a bad idea.

Elders, you can veto me at any point.

But maybe, just maybe, we need to kill half the programs

and become a church that just focuses on prayer and worship

and coming to Jesus again and finding our rest in Him.

Watermark, we are a busy church, and we are a wonderful church.

But is it leading us to Jesus?

Is it helping us trust Him and love Him and obey Him?

Or is it becoming a system by which we pat ourselves on the back and say,

look how busy we are?

That's the corporate one.

Here's the individual one.

I think one of the warnings of this passage is that Jesus wants to demonstrate to us

how easily the human heart turns gifts of grace into idols of justification.

For the Jews in Jesus' day, the Sabbath became a means of self-righteousness,

a system of justifying how good and righteous and devout they were.

And yet the irony is that it kept them from finding the one person

in whom their righteousness, justification, and redemption was really held.

Friends, every one of us, Jesus calls us to engage in spiritual disciplines.

But all those leading us to Jesus.

And so tomorrow morning, I hope that most of us are going to get up early

and we're going to read our Bibles and we're going to spend time in confession and repentance.

And we're going to spend time and pray before we go to work and start off our day.

But at the end of that time, is that going to be a box that we tick and say,

I've done my job?

Or is that going to lead us to come to Jesus,

weary and heavy laden, and find our rest in Him?

Friends, tomorrow morning, I hope each one of us get up early and spend time in God's Word.

But let it lead you to King Jesus.

Let it lead you to the Gospel.

Let it lead you to His grace and remember the Gospel and remind us that our life is found in Him.

Jesus, our true and better King.

Jesus, the true and better temple.

Jesus, our true and better Sabbath.

Jesus, the one that it's all about.

Jesus says,

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden,

and I will give you rest.

Come and take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I'm gentle and lowly in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy,

and my burden is light.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus Christ,

we confess, God,

that so easily we become like the Pharisees,

and we turn what's meant to be a gift of grace

into a system of rules and regulations,

into a system of self-justification.

Father, won't you open our eyes once again to see you for who you are?

Father, won't you open our eyes to see our desperate need to you,

to see that rest,

true Sabbath rest,

that everything that the great Sabbath was all about is found in coming to you.

Jesus, for those of us that are anxious and weary,

tired and exhausted,

draw us to yourself, we pray,

and come and help us to find our rest in you.

Amen.