Body

COMING TO CHRIST FOR TRUE REST

Note: this short sermon was given on September 15 ^th 2001

Are you feeling tired? Have you had a hard week at work or back at school? Are you weighed down by problems, or shaken by the events in America on September 11^th 2001? Do you need a rest? Do you need a pillow? I know I'm glad when the weekend comes round.

I'm sure at sometime we've all felt tired, drained, lacking in motivation, in need of a rest. Perhaps we've had sleepless nights when we've been overwhelmed by problems. It's not surprising – society demands more and more from us. Work, study, families, church, housework, DIY, shopping, travel, friends, entertainment… Our average sleep time is falling, work hours are increasing, we walk faster, we're always on the go.

But as Christians God doesn't want us to be overwhelmed by these things. He doesn't want us to suffer stress or exhaustion. He wants to free us from these things in this life and forever. Let's start in Matthew 11:28-30: "'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.'" Christ says he wants to give us rest. What does this mean? What is this rest? How can we enter it and experience true peace and relaxation? I thought it would be interesting to spend a few minutes considering this.

The world we live in doesn't know how to experience true rest. The world doesn't know how to experience true rest. Humanly however much we're able to rest we still get tired again. However much we're able to rest we still need to eat, work, look after ourselves. We still need to do the washing, ironing, cooking. We still have problems – financial, work, relationships. People find themselves chasing their tails – we just get one thing finished and two more have piled up in the meantime. We can start to feel like that advert "why can't everything be as simple as Kellogg's Corn Flakes?"

I don't want us to feel depressed – most people stay positive and find their way through life one way or another. But all too many do try to find ways to escape the daily routine, get off the treadmill, escape from the problems, escape from the rat race, escape from themselves. They turn to alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling. Thousands are on anti-depressants. I know – I've met some of them. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster was talking about this recently – people look at these things for happiness but it's only short term. People misuse and abuse things, taking them to excess without realising the consequences.

You only have to go to bars in central London on a Friday night to see it. Some people are there every week not to relax with friends but drinking hard trying to escape stress and problems. Some of them are there every night. Drugs are freely available in nightclubs and student houses. Even professionals are taking them. People are looking for happiness, peace, acceptance, freedom from problems, but they're looking in the wrong places. After excessive alcohol comes the hangover - and the problems are still there. After sex comes the emotional baggage and often physical consequences - and the problems are still there. After excessive gambling comes debt – and the problems get even worse. I don't want us to feel depressed – but it wasn't meant to be this way.

It wasn't meant to be this way. Jesus wants us to realise society is looking for solutions in the wrong places. He wants us to focus on the only solution – and he wants us to help other people find that solution too.

So what is the rest Christ says he wants to give us?

When we talk humanly about having a rest we mean relaxing, recharging our batteries, regaining strength, getting rid of stress, being refreshed, getting away from problems and the day to day routine for a while.

These are all little glimpses, little foretastes, little cameos of the rest God and Jesus Christ want to give us. But the kind of rest available to us as Christians is something very special, something far superior to any rest we can humanly experience.

You see the rest God and Jesus Christ want to give us is unique. It's unique because it lasts – we don't have to go back to worrying about the problems again afterwards. We don't have to keep getting stressed and exhausted, as it says in Matthew 11:28-30.

David understood this. In Psalm 23 he said: "The Lord's my shepherd, I shall not want, he makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside the still waters, he restores my soul. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil." The events in the US on September 11^th 2001 certainly sound like the valley of the shadow of death to me.

And in Psalm 62:1, 5 David says: "My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him … Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my home comes from him."

God lives in a state of permanent, spiritual rest with himself and Jesus Christ. In fact he's been there since creation – this rest is already a reality! I don't want to read too much into it but in the creation account there is no "evening and morning" recorded on the seventh day. God has been in that state of rest ever since. And it's a special rest he's offering to share with us in Jesus Christ. It's a perfect, pure, everlasting, lifegiving rest. There's no strings, no problems, no hangovers, no bills, no side effects.

Humanly we rest to be refreshed, but Jesus says if we drink of his water we'll never thirst again. Look at John 4:13-14: "Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'"

And Revelation 7:16: "Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat."

Also, in Isaiah 40:31, a messianic prophecy – the beginning of the chapter makes clear it's about Jesus – it says: "But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." No longer getting tired but having a continuous source of energy. This is something very special – something we should desire with all our hearts.

The Israelites were never able to enter this rest – it is only through Christ that we can do so. Psalm 95:10-11 shows this: "For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, 'They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.' So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'" The Israelites were disobedient – they didn't trust God and so they couldn't even enter the physical rest of the Promised Land for 40 years.

But the key is in Hebrews 4:1-4: "Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, 'So I declared on oath in my anger, "They shall never enter my rest."' And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: 'And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.'"

Verses 2-3 make it clear that if we believe then we can enter that rest. When we come to believe in Christ, to truly trust in him and allow him to live in us, then he can bring with him the wonderful, true, pure, lasting rest that he lives in and only he can provide.

We don't have to do anything – he does it all – we just have to let him – he has already won the victory over every enemy on the cross. Jesus will take our problems for us so we don't need to take our hurts out on ourselves or other people. He promises to replace anger and hate with love, pain with joy, exhaustion with boundless enthusiasm. It doesn't matter how bad our problems are – relationship breakdown, our house burning down, unemployment, exams, even the utter horror of what happened in the US on September 11^th 2001.

Of course in this life we won't fully experience this true rest. I'm not pretending that we won't still feel pain, that we won't still have problems and stresses and anxieties. I don't mean to trivialise anyone's crises or hurts. But the more we really get to know Jesus and allow him to live his life in us, the less we need to worry and the greater our peace of mind. In prayer we can give our problems to him, and through the Holy Spirit we can have strength even when physically we would be exhausted.

And I can tell you from experience that it does work. About three years ago I had a problem at work, when I fell out with a good friend who was also a work colleague. It was a difficult time – I felt quite depressed and lacking in confidence. I felt others in the office were siding with her. A couple of times I even almost resigned. Then one day I read Matthew 11:28-30, and I prayed several times asking Jesus to take the burden from me. And one day I just woke up feeling positive, untroubled, filled with confidence. Something said to me just to be friendly and the best person I could be to everyone at work, and then let God do the rest. It changed the whole situation. I began to enjoy work and perform better and get on with everyone and subsequently I was promoted.

So it does work. The creator of the whole universe wants to live in us and share the perfect, totally refreshing rest he lives in with us. All we have to do is believe and trust – we don't need to chase around trying to find ways to escape. We don't have to do it on our own. We can live with him, talk with him, trust in him, rest on him and hold onto him as our pure, white, soft pillow, and our eternal source of strength.

So in conclusion, let's ask God to help us really come to know him and feel comfortable and relaxed in his presence. Let's rest on him, ask him to take our problems for us, and give us the peace and energy and strength and love he wants us to have. And let's reach out to some of those people who are suffering, some of those running around chasing rainbows that don't exist – and help them to find the only true source of life and rest and hope.

I wanted to finish by quoting the words of a beautiful song by Reuben Morgan. If you get a chance to listen to it I recommend it. I first heard it in Australia in 1999. It talks about how when we open ourselves to Christ and welcome him in, he will give us the breath, strength and love to carry on. As it said in Isaiah 40:31 we can rise up like eagles – the song is called "Eagle's Wings." And when that's finished I think it's time for a rest!

"Here I am waiting

Abide in me I pray

Here I am longing for You

Hide me in Your love

Bring me to my knees

May I know Jesus more and more

Come live in me

All my life take over

Come breathe in me

And I will rise on eagle's wings"

September 2001

Revised July 2002