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