Well, I was counting on the Mayan apocalypse to get me out of Christmas shopping, but it let me down so I've been kind of Coming up with all my gifts here of the last few days when shopping yesterday and I really wanted to get y'all something I did it you've been so good to me this year and then kind to me You gave me a sabbatical this summer three months to reflect and to rest and Within that three months I had a counselor who prescribed sleep. I think I've told you this before he He enforced a ten-hour curfew. I just sleep at least ten hours a night for 30 days and that alone was a life-changing event And it was a great gift that you you gave to me when I came back you gave me a building look at this I mean y'all they'll really are spoiling me and you gave me a fly iron pulpit I mean what more could a man want and I wanted to give y'all something and And as I was trying to figure out what that was the movie Christmas story came to my mind and you know The scene at the end of the Christmas story where he finally has his baby gun and They've eaten the meal. They went out and got Oriental duck and Always right with the world and you the final scene you see even bed with his gun under his arm every American's dream and And he was just perfectly at rest and and if you're like me and you've ever snuck in and watched your kid sleep or seen Infant sleep you do see that that perfect rest and That's what I want to give you And I realized that Jesus has already made that kind of rest That kind of deep peaceful rest available to you And I want you to find it. I want to help you find it if If you're visiting or if you don't remember let me kind of trace for you what we've done this fall When I returned in August we started about looking at Isaiah 61 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me forgot has anointed me to preach good news to the poor to heal and bind up the broken hearted That that's where we started looking at what Isaiah said Jesus would be like looking at Isaiah's Prophecies his descriptions of the work of the Savior and we spent the entire fall doing that August through November and Then as we started advent we we go on we went to Matthew chapters 10 and 11 and we asked this question if Isaiah had everybody so prepared for Jesus. Why did nobody recognize him? Why did they miss him and That's where we are in this text Jesus last week looked He answered a question from John the Baptist John the Baptist himself almost missed Jesus and sent Messengers to Jesus saying are you the one to come or do we need to wait for another one and Jesus said you tell John the Baptist the blind received their sight lepers are cleansed lame walk the data received back to life Blessed as the one who's not offended by me and the messengers went away and took that message and Then Jesus turned to the crowds and he said to them Nothing makes you happy
John the Baptist came and he was all steer and he lived in the woods and he fasted and He called for repentance and you said he's too serious. He's too uptight. He's too legalistic. You would not mourn with him and The son of man has come Celebrating and rejoicing and feasting when when sinners repent and you say he's a he's a drunkard He's a glutton You wouldn't cry with John the Baptist. You won't sing with me. Nothing makes you happy He said to them you are about to miss God's gift You're about to miss it. God God hides his gifts low and Only the humble can find them. Let's listen to the word of the Lord from Matthew chapter 11 Jesus began to denounce the cities Where the most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent What do you cousin? What do you best say to For the mighty works done and you had been done in Tyre and sodden They would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes But I tell you it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon and that for you and Capornium Would you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Haiti For if the mighty works done and you had been done in Sodom it would have remained until this day But I tell you it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you At that time Jesus declared I Thank you Father Lord of heaven and earth that you have hidden these things from the wise and Understanding and reveal them to little children Yes, Father for yours Your such was your gracious will All things have been handed over to me by my father and no one knows the son except the father and no one knows the father except the son and Anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him Come to me all you 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 soul For my yoke is easy and My burden is light That's far the reading of God's word
God's gift to you God offered God's offer to you is Deep rest Not deep sleep deep sleeps a wonderful thing I'm heavily in favor of it when you can find it, but he offers you deep rest peace Rest from the restlessness of spirit that you experience in your soul It's something that we've all longed for and the longing for it is not a cultural thing It's not something that started in the sixties. It goes all the way back, right? It is today It is a longing that we experience today. It is a longing of the sixties the rolling stone saying about it I can't get no satisfaction or there is this this longing for rest, but it goes all the way back to the beginning St. Augustine wrote about it and you should listen to St. Augustine because anybody who's big enough and important enough to have a turf grass named after him and A beach. I mean, he has both a beach and a turf grass. So Clearly, he's an important figure in Western history and he said that what do we know about him? Augustine had a deep restlessness He tried to fill it in every way possible. He tried to fill it with a dancing girls and with sexual immorality He tried to fill it with with Academic achievement and he far exceeded anyone's expectations. He tried to fill it with career And was on the track to becoming very successful. He tried to fill it with With religion he decided to get moral and get some religion So he he put away his concubines and he he got tried to get religious and he was trying to deal with his restlessness within him and Finally, the Lord Made him born again in Augustine wrote this You've made us for yourself, O Lord and Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you What Jesus is offering to us is this kind of rest a Peace saying goodbye to anxiety And he and he gives us this gift of peace and rest, but he hides it low and he tells us only humble people are going to find it and In revealing this rest, he does three things. He gives us you knew it was going to be three things, right? He got gives us a very grave denunciation and Then he gives us a surprising and unexpected exultation and finally he gives us a gracious invitation So we're gonna look at all three of these things and and look at what it is that Jesus is offering us What it is it keeps us from enjoying it and experiencing it and then how we can come to enjoy them so first of all Let's look at the grave denunciation Jesus began He began by saying He began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works have been done because they did not repent Okay, where This is important to you to notice this. This is the cities where most of his mighty work have been done He's the cities of Galilee. These are the cities. He's been walking around him for three years where he's been healing the sick He's been giving sight to the blind. He's been restoring life Okay, this is not Jesus coming in and giving a word of judgment to people who have honest questions It's not Jesus looking at people who've been you know examining his claims for like 15 minutes going why haven't you are been in yet? Okay, Jesus is very patient and gracious. He is looking at the people that he's been doing ministry in front of for three years and
In this denunciation, it's tempting for us to kind of hear it as a scold Kind of like a Man, I can't wait to lower it on you kind of you know, just bam man, you know Kind of the way redneck's talk, you know, man I wish I could find me some more but Osama bin Laden, you know, I pop him that that's not what that's not how Jesus talks He doesn't have that accent trust me and he he does not enjoy judgment Instead what we have in this text is a grave somber Realization of the true That if you don't repent You who've seen my works you that have been listening to me for years You that nothing is good enough for if you don't change if you don't turn You're going to destruction and I want to explain kind of two Christiany words in the text the first one is is repent And what he means here is a complete change of life a change in the way you think a change in the way you feel a change in the way you act It is not kind of a slapping on of a new Appearance a new veneer on an on an old and self-righteous body, but it's a humbling and it's a thorough inward out-changing I was reading an article this last month From a lady who had been converted of a life of sexual immorality and she described it like this. I think this was perfect She said what I discovered was that the problem with me Was not that I was homosexual as opposed to being heterosexual The problem was that my sexuality was not under the Lordship of Christ That's what it means to repent To bring everything under his Lordship We would say the same thing in matters of greed. It's not the problem that's your rich or your poor the problem is you don't Handle your money under the Lordship of Christ We'd say the same thing with You know your job the same way with the way you handle school the way you handle your parents and relationships It's not that you have too much or too little. It's Isn't under Christ Is he at the center of your life? He's talking about a wholesale change? The second word I want to describe is what I explained to you is whoa right whoa to you We don't say that a lot. It's not as good kind of hard to translate really. I can't remember the last time I just kind of walked out and saw my children doing something and said whoa to you Stunned flow behind that and fit with my accent This is not kind of a faunsy whoa you remember faunsy whoa You know, that's that's with an a and an a just hold your horses. That's not what we're talking about This is a it's a word of warning and It's it describe it explains two things it's saying you are heading toward judgment And Jesus here shows us that he does have an edge There is an end If you reject the light that is in Jesus, you will live in darkness If you reject the peace that is in Jesus you will live in anxiety and fear If you reject the joy that is in Jesus you will Move toward cynicism and sorrow If you reject the life that is in Jesus you will Will move toward death an eternal death So there is that hard edgeness to it. He's saying I have an end
But there's also a heart brokenness A why will you die type feeling here? The first time we really that I'm not sure it's not the first time. I don't know my Bible that well But the first time I remember hearing this this particular phrase in the mouth of Isaiah When Isaiah sees the Lord and I and Isaiah chapter 6 you remember it And he is convicted of his sin and he says whoa is me Right He's not saying boy, I can't wait to kill me. I mean it's not there's no joy in the in the parishing It's just a solemn declaration. I am in trouble and you said that you felt that about others You know people that no matter how hard you try no matter how many Opportunities you give them they're simply not turning away from their self-destruction And there's been times when you've walked away shaking your head going What was me? What was them you didn't say that you said something like oh I just wish they had turned I just wish we could help him you said They're never gonna be happy and that's what Jesus is saying. You're never gonna find life You're never gonna find it He gives a grave denunciation. He's telling them that joy and hope and rest is being offered but they're never gonna find it And secondly he kind of Does something unexpected he exalts in the Lord and look at why he exalts. Why does he praise God? Says at that time Jesus declared I thank you father lord of heaven and earth that you've hidden these things from the wise and understanding And revealed them to little children Jesus turns and he thanks God. He says to he announces first of all that this this life that is to be found in In repentance is something that can only be found when God has revealed it That no one's gonna find it naturally And he says I thank you I praise you God you glorify you because you're not revealing it to the strong and the mighty and the clean and the perfect You're not revealing it to the wise and the intelligent no one is earning their way up here You're revealing yourself to the weak to the humble to the poor
A friend of mine Tell me about her kids in school and they came home. They go to the union sixth grade center where You have like four teachers separated into pods these little so it's basically 10 schools in one building and that share luncheon And there was a competition This semester on who could bring the most canned goods and and her little girl was explained to her sixth grade girl I don't know if that's a little anymore some of them are taller than me um Was saying you know we really we just dominated this competition it wasn't even close and Her mom asked why wasn't it close and she said well You know and we were going against the top floor and the top floor has a few dirty pods in it She said what's a dirty pod Yeah, you know Not too many English speakers and they're they're kind of poor and they don't really bring much with them
Don't look shocked You thought that As if she was telling the story I just laughed and I said you know I grew up in the dirty pod I sure am thankful that Jesus chooses his team from the dirty pod
And that's what Jesus is saying father. I thank you. I thank you that you choose the dirty That it wasn't just the wise who got in because it wouldn't have been me And it wasn't the refined that they got in because it wouldn't have been us
Thank you Revealing yourself to the babies To the weak And the question that that text asks us is this who are you? I mean If you're the kind of person who's got your life together and you're doing everything right And you're kind of adding religion on you know You got your your finances in order and you've got your kind of job your fit 20-year plan in order and you've got your kids in the right school they're in order and you're Working out and you got your body in order and now you're trying to you know Add a little church to get your spirit in order and you get your house in order and you're probably gonna miss it You're probably gonna miss it because he doesn't reveal himself to the wise He doesn't reveal himself to those who are wise in their own eyes who already get all this stuff He doesn't reveal himself to those who sit in churches and say man I sure wish someone so could hear this sermon
For those who say man, I know people who need this gospel. I really know people who need that If that's what's going on in the back of your mind. It's not for you You're missing it But if every time we unveil these these elements and every time we break that bread you say that's for me I can't live without that. I need that forgiveness. I need that cleansing. I need that feeding And rejoice He reveals himself to the poor He reveals himself to the babies. I got a letter a few um Years ago from a lady who's a friend of mine Which he'd been involved kind of the churches where I was and she sent me a note she she um Was very successful she had kind of outbreaks of different I don't know how to say it really just kind of outbreaks of sin every now and then you know More or less she's doing fine, but you know every now and then she should have a real outbreak of anger or She actually kind of got hooked on pain medications for a while and these other things kind of But she can't was able to more or less kick them And her a family ended up having to get her an intervention And what they said to her was this they brought her daughters who came in her husband was there Sisters were there her mom and her dad and they said this they said Your life is together, but we don't know you You're always either doing stuff for us We're trying to impress us Or you're kind of using guilt to get us to pay back for the stuff that you've done for us But you never really let us in we don't know you You're hiding from us And we feel like you're manipulating us to keep us from ever knowing you And that's one of these things keep breaking out in your life
And the Lord really used that and she wrote me this note and she said I always thought I was a good person I went to church for heaven sakes I occasionally lost my temper or sometimes I gossiped I spent too much money I may drink too much every now and then But I had Jesus to forgive me when I did all that
And now what Jesus is for I live a more or less good life every now and then I stumble and when I stumbled Jesus forgives me when I do that And she said when I've come to realize Is I did not need Jesus forgiveness I needed to be remade I needed to be born again I thought I was basically a good person who occasionally did bad things When I realized was I was a dead person who needed to be born again
That's the child having the gospel revealed to them
That's the message of grace It is for the lowly It is for the weak And that's what Jesus praises the Lord for forgiving us that He makes his unexpected exaltation After his denunciation finally he gives us a gracious invitation I thought that was going to be kind of a really cool sounding outline but I found I can't really get through it too well And I don't it just a sound good coming out from my mouth I didn't And he get back to good old red neck terms all right The gracious invitation these these famous words 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 like come to me Take my yoke upon you And learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest in your souls He is offering to take away our compulsions He's offering to to take away what drives us He's offering to take away what keeps us from ever enjoying a good days work What keeps us from ever enjoying a holiday I mean how many of us today Are all wrapped up with anxiety wondering if Christmas is going to be as perfect as we wanted to be For those children so they want a perfect memories and come back and spend Christmas with me Because that's what I want And he's trying to take us away from those compulsions and he's trying to Give us rest And really the question is First of all, how does he give us this rest How is Jesus able to give us that rest for our souls And to understand that we have to go forward in the gospel to the night When he takes his disciples out into the garden And he says to them, I am troubled to the point of death Pray for me And he goes and throws himself on the ground and he begins begging the Lord not to send him to the cross Not to make him the sacrifice and he comes back and he finds his disciples asleep and he wakes him up And he says Peter can't you wait, pray for me
Can't you pray for me for an hour
Now we're not told what Peter said But I've got an entire inside line. He told me what he said Just kidding. This is what I imagine Peter saying I imagine Peter saying wait just a minute Just a few chapters ago I remember We were in a boat And we were straining at the oars and we were bailing out water and we were briefing in the sales and we came and we woke you up You were sleeping and when we woke you up you said oh you have little faith. Why are you afraid? You reviewed us for waking you up And just a few chapters ago you said Don't be afraid when they deliver you before the courts For the Holy Spirit will tell you what to say and don't fear man who can hurt your body But cannot touch your soul you tell and just tonight Just a few verses ago You said to me in this world you'll have tribulation Let me have great joy. I have overcome the world And now we get Sweat and blood and tears and you're reviewing me for falling asleep What gives That's what Peter should have said Because the answer is this Jesus would have said all of my peace has been taken away All of my rest has been ripped out from me For you Jesus suffered the anxiety the troubled soul the terror the fear That we deserve We willingly try to live our lives independent of God and that should scare us to death And so we live lives of anxiety and vulnerability and fear Jesus willingly underwent that he had his relationship with the Father broken He lost all of his peace he lost all of his rest So that he could give rest to us So that he could fulfill his promise that if you come to me you will find rest and so when we come to him we find Rest for our souls And it changes us so that we can We can love people without trying to Make them into our idols trying to make them into our security blankets Because the thing is this The ultimate thing that destroys rest is fear
I know this Few weeks ago my wife stood up in bed And said what was that? I came out of a deep sleep. I don't know what She said, I don't know. She went back to sleep. I guess she never woke up For the next four hours. I'll lay next to her with my eyes wide open Was it fear disrupts sleep Fear takes away rest So I can't love my children in peace if I'm terrified. They may not turn out right If I'm terrified that I'm not doing it right but
If I don't get my Purpose for living from how they love me Then I can love them And I can make them really mad at me sometimes And I can let that go Because Jesus loves me enough for them too And if I don't have that rest then I look at my money as more than money. It is my security in life But if I let Jesus be my Lord and I come to him and let him give me rest then I look at my money as God's money And I'm just stewarded And I'm going to spend it Wisely and do my best to spend it wisely and I'm going to save it and I'm going to give it away And I'm going to bless the world through it the way he wants me to bless it because it's his And if I look at my job is what justifies my existence then I'm going to Work feverishly and went with fear and with terror that if I fail I am a failure But when I let Jesus be what justifies me and I find rest in him then I can work hard And I can go home and go to sleep And if it doesn't work out the Lord who feeds the the birds will feed me And the Lord who closed the grass will close me And he'll find me something else If Jesus is my rest But if he is not my rest then I won't rest anywhere That is what he's offering you that is his grit Christmas gift to you But you won't find it on your terms You only find it by humbling yourself And looking very low Please pray with me our Father in heaven I pray that we would find the rest that you promise us Find the rest that you give to us Jesus we thank you for giving up all that peace we thank you for experiencing terror for us We thank you for going to the cross Terrified And we pray that we would find our peace in your work We pray in Jesus name