The Rest of The Kingdom

At the age of 53, he had completely lost his ability to sleep. What first it began with trouble sleeping at night, gradually worsened over time resulting in: Speech problems, Coordination issues, Hallucinations, Delirium, and Dementia. And eventually, just four months after checking himself into a sleep clinic, he slipped into a coma and died. And why? Because the man suffered from a rare condition called: “Fatal Insomnia.”

Fatal Insomnia is a condition where you are neither fully asleep, nor full awake. And this inability to sleep wreaks havoc upon the body, resulting in its complete deterioration.

Even if you don’t have Fatal Insomnia, scientists tell us that if you don’t regularly hit the REM stage of sleep, which stands for “rapid eye movement,” it can result in severe tiredness, anxiety, depression, and even PTSD. And though a lack of enough REM sleep may not kill you, it can have devastating effects upon your life. In fact, not only do Americans spend over 1 billion dollars a year on treating sleep conditions, researchers have estimated that the decreased productivity due to sleep deprivation results in an economic hit of more than 12 billion dollars a year! And all because we struggle to get the rest our bodies need.

When it comes to rest, even if you aren’t one of the 70 million who suffers from a sleep disorder, which is about 30% of the adult population, the reality is, we are all born with a spiritual sleep disorder. And it’s not just a lack of quality rest, it’s not just a lack of enough quantity of rest, it’s actually a SPIRITUAL FATAL INSOMNIA, which results in just that - spiritual death.

See, like fatal insomnia, spiritual fatal insomnia leaves our spiritual bodies completely unable to rest: Unable to be rejuvenated and restored to good spiritual health. And because of our spiritual inability to find true rest, every single one of us eventually withers away and suffers spiritual death.

And while their is no cure for the physical condition of “Fatal insomnia” thankfully there is a cure for its spiritual condition, and that cure is found in Matthew chapter 11, specifically verse 28, which reads:

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

Matthew 11:28 ESV

Make no mistakes about it, this is THE ONLY cure for our spiritual Fatal Insomnia. And so if you want the cure, if you want the rest that is offered here and you want to experience it fully, then please turn with me in your Bible’s to Matthew chapter 11, where we find the 3 things that we must know to find true rest, and here they are:

To Find Rest We Must Know:

1. The Problem of Rest (v. 28)
2. The Path to Rest (v. 25-27)
3. The Person of Rest (v. 29-30

1. The Problem of Rest (v. 28)

There’s so much here in this text we desperately need. Lord help me.

Why is there a problem of spiritual restlessness? Because of sin. Sin causes our restlessness. And it causes our restlessness because it’s a burden we all carry.

In the book Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan brilliantly symbolizes this by showing our sin as a massive burden we carry, which just keeps getting heavier and heavier throughout our lives. And it is because of this heavy burden that we are so restless.

Another way to think about this is to borrow Jesus’s illustration in verse 29, with the yoke. And what is a yoke? Well, it’s not the center of an egg - well, technically it is, just not here. A yoke was a harness that was attached to animal in order to make them pull heavy wagons, plows, or whatever. And if you were going to pull really heavy objects, you would typically use a yoke that attached two animals to that heavy object, which was was the old school way of getting more horse-power out of something. Which now that I think of it, is actually where that term comes from.

Now, when it comes to this yoking, if you know anything at all about yoking, you know that you can’t yoke mixed animals together - like an ox and a donkey. And why not? Well, it’s not just because Deuteronomy 22:10 says not to that, it’s because the reason you can’t do that is because they won’t work together in sync. They have a different pace, a different stride, they have different speed. Which doesn’t allow them to be yoked together. And if you try to, not only will you just tire them out, but you’ll likely end up hurting the animals.

Now here’s the thing: Every single one of us is yoking ourselves to SOMETHING in order to try and pull the heavy burden of our sin. See, I don’t care who you are, deep down inside, you know you are carrying a burden of sin. Sure, not everyone calls it that, but make no mistake, every one of us - even the most oblivious, self-aware lacking, obtuse nitwit - knows they got a problem... And how do they try to deal with that problem? By yoking themselves to something or someone that they believe will help them carry their heavy burden.

We all naturally do this: But here is the thing: No matter what it is, whatever we try to yoke ourselves to is an unequal yoking, Which is… going… to. tire... us out! And not only is it going to tire us out, but it’s going to end up hurting us and the thing we are yoked to!

Think with me for a second about the kind of things we yoke ourselves to.

Some of us yoke ourselves to LOVE. To our spouse. We look to them to bring us rest from the burden we carry. But it doesn’t work! It can’t work! And if we insist on forcing this upon them, then we will severely damage that relationship!

This is why you often find a spouse who is too scared to lovingly confront and challenge their wife or husband about their sin. They have yoked themselves to them hoping that in their spouse they will find peace and rest for their souls! But it’s no going to work.

And this isn’t just isolated to romantic relationships. So often, even in the church, we avoid dealing with conflict because the center of our peace, The center of our happiness - is a false peace that we have yokes ourselves to. And so we avoid relational conflict at all costs.

This is why little mole hills become mountains in our relationships. It’s because we have yoked ourselves to peer approval - being accepted and respected And because of this, little slights against us become massive betrayals that we can’t seem to get over. And this is because we have yoked ourselves to something that can’t help us with the burden we carry.

This is why parent’s sometimes crush their children with unrealistic expectations, It’s because they are trying to find rest through seeing their kids fulfill their own unrealized dreams and aspirations. Which results either in your kids hating your or becoming completely smothered and attached to you in an unhealthy way.

We all do this - and in the Bible it’s called idolatry. And so that’s the reason we are restless. It’s because we are trying to carry the burden of our sin by yoking ourselves to something that can’t handle the weight! Sure it might seem like it’s helping us at first - buuut it’s noooot. Not really.

One of the most common things we yoke ourselves to is religion. We tell ourselves that if we follow all the rules - or at least the big ones - then we’ll finally be able to find rest. We tell ourselves that if we know more than most people If we serve more If we pray more If we go to church more, then we’ll we’ll find spiritual rest for our souls! But it doesn’t wooorrrkkk. Because we are yoking ourselves to something that is going to destroy us as we destroy it!

See, looking to religious obedience to bring us rest is a lot like yoking yourself to a race horse. Sure it might seem alright at first, but that beast is just gonna go faster and faster until it drags you to death behind it!

And so have a very really problem on our hands, don’t we? We must not yoke ourselves to anything, BUT, at the same time, we can’t NOT yoke ourselves to something! For we are yokers at heart.

And so what’s the solution? The solution is knowing the right path to rest, which leads us to our second point.

To Find Rest We Must Know:

2. The Path to Rest (v. 25-27)

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 revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for 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.

Matthew 11:25-27 ESV

If you were here with us last week, we said that Matthew 11 could rightly be thought of as a response to John the Baptist’s doubt, which is how the chapter begins. John, the forerunner of Jesus, is in prison, and so he sends some of his disciples to Jesus with a simple question: “Are you the coming one?” Which means: “Are you the Messiah?” And the reason John was asking that was because Jesus’s path didn’t seem to match the path of the Messiah. At least not according to John’s expectations.

And why not? Because the people’s Messiah was being rejected by the people! And if the people were rejecting their Jesus as the Messiah, then how on earth could Jesus be the Messiah? And the answer is, because the path to rest was not the expected path. Not at all. It wasn’t a wide path, as Jesus told us in Matthew 7 - it was a narrow path! It was not for the righteous, but the unrighteous It was for the spiritually sick, not the spiritually healthy as Jesus told us in Matthew 9. It’s not for the spiritually rich, but for the spiritually poor, as Jesus told us in Matthew 5. And, as Jesus tells us in verse 25, it’s a path for little children, not the wise and understanding.

Now what does Jesus mean by that? Is He saying only stupid people go to heaven and smart people go to hell? No, not at all. That’s not His point. His point is that people who have yoked themselves to their wisdom and understanding are actually fools, and those who have not yokes themselves are actually wise. It’s the Gospel’s great reversal! The first will be last and the last will be first sort of stuff.

And this was a path that many would miss! For most of the Israelites in Jesus’s time missed it!

BUT, was that a failure on God’s part? NOOOOPPPPPEEE!!! For their rejection of the Messiah was actually apart of God’s sovereign will and plan!

Look at verse 25: What’s Jesus doing here? He’s praising God the Father, the lord of heaven and what? EARTH! And why is Jesus praising God the Father, the Lord of heaven and earth? Because God has chosen to HIDE “THESE THINGS” from the wise and understanding!

What are the “These things” that Jesus is talking about? God’s revelation to man! Everything that God was doing - which includes Jesus’s life and mission! And so here Jesus is praising God for HIDING all of that from, basically, all of Israel!

And if that doesn’t trigger us Western Americans enough on its own, keep reading through verse 27. What’s Jesus saying there? He’s saying that God the Father has handed all “THESE THINGS” over to the Him - the Son! And, no one knows the Father except the Son AND WHOM THE SON CHOOSES TO REVEAL HIM!

You can certainly TRY to spin that statement to make it less offensive to our Western sensibilities, but good luck! Cuz you’re gonna need it. Look, there’s no way around it, verse 25 through 27 are HIGH SOVEREIGNTY VERSES. This is SOVEREIGN GRACE at it’s finest church! God, in accordance to the PLEASURES OF HIS WILL - as Ephesians 1 says, In accordance to “HIS GRACIOUS WILL” as verse 26 says: Has decided what? To hide “THESE THINGS” from the wise and to reveal them to WHOM THE SON CHOOSES TO REVEAL THEM TO.

And look, I get it. This is a HARD saying! It offends us. It seems unfair to us. It seems down-right scandalous! And yet, for the childlike heart it is wonderful, glorious, beautiful, sovereign grace that saves not the wise, not the rich, not the powerful, but those who realize (rich and poor alike), that before God they are COMPLETELY BANKRUPT and found wanting!

Do you see why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1 that the word of the cross is FOOLISHNESS to those who are perishing And again in chapter two that the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to Him And why? Because even the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of man!

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 1:18-31 ESV

The gospel of Jesus Christ is for the meek and the weak - not the prideful and the strong. It is for little children - those with child-like faith, who place their trust in God and not themselves. Not the wise, not the understanding who were smart enough to figure out God’s plan of salvation! No, for in the wisdom of God He choose to save the spiritually blind, the spiritually lame, the spiritually DEAD! And He chose to save them upon the narrow path of grace, that all little children of faith walk upon , which alone leads to rest to their souls. And why? Because upon the path of grace they find the person of rest who alone gives rest to those who labor and are heavy laden. Which leads us to our final point.

To Find Rest We Must Know:

3. The Person of Rest (v. 29-30

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.”

Matthew 11:28-30 ESV

If you notice in this passage, Jesus doesn’t say: “Come to me for a yoke-free life!” does He? No, He says, “come to Me and I’ll give you a yoke that brings rest.” Do you see how amazing this is church? It’s ridiculously profound!

In Matthew 23, Jesus speaks of the yoke that the pharisees offered the people, and what kind of yoke was that? It was a heavy burden that was impossibly to bear! It weighed them down, calling them to an righteousness of their own that was unattainable, instead of looking to the righteousness that God gives graciously to all who would come to Him as little children of faith!

But wait, I thought it’s only for those Whom the Father chooses? Isn’t that what Jesus said in verses 25-27? Yes - It is! BUT - and don’t miss this point here please, do you see the mystery of the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man at play in this chapter? Oh you have to see it - it’s nearly bouncing off the pages!

What did we look at last week? We looked at verses 20-24, where Jesus denounces the unbelieving cities who refused to repent and trust in Him as their Messiah. He’s holding them responsible, isn’t He?

But then, as we just saw, in verses 25-27, Jesus is not just acknowledging God’s sovereignty in this, but He is praising God for hiding the light from them and how it is only little children those who receive it, and the little children are the ones Whom the Son chooses to reveal it to. He’s holding God highly responsible now isn’t He?

And yet, right after showing us the responsibility of man and the absolute and total sovereignty of God, what does Jesus do? Does He tell us that everything is determined so go ahead and sleep in on Sundays? Does He leave us with fatalism? Nope. He goes on to offer and invitation to ALL who labor and are heavy laden, offering them TRUE REST.

And remarkably, this rest comes through the yoke that He offers. However, unlike the scribes and the pharisees, the yoke that Jesus offers is easy and light, Unlike the scribes and the pharisees, the learning that Jesus offers is from someone who is gentle and meek And, Unlike the scribes and the pharisees, the rest Jesus offers provides true rest for our souls.

Christ is telling us that He is the ONLY One that we can yoke our hearts to that will cure our fatal spiritual insomnia! It’s not religion, Not moral law-keeping, Not our career, our hobbies, our spouse or our kids, Not our social status - NONE OF THOSE YOKES BRING REST! Only Christ’s yoke brings rest for our wearied souls! And so if we want the peace that the Prince of Peace brings, then we must take His yoke upon us and learn from Him.

What does it mean to take Christ’s yoke upon us? What is this “learning from Him” that He calls us to? It’s a yoke of bondage It’s a yoke of discipleship. Christ is saying, that we must yoke ourselves to HIM and HIM ALONE. Which means, we learn from Him, We imitate Him, We walk with HIM in the yoke of discipleship, at his pace, at His speed, and at His step - Not ours! And remarkably, as we take His yoke upon us by learning from Him, we find that His yoke is easy and His burden is light!

There’s no way around it, taking Christ’s yoke upon yourself involves discipleship. It absolutely does. So the question is, as it for you? Are you a disciple? Are you learning from Christ by listening to Him in His Word? And I’m not just talking about reading your Bible or going to church on Sundays, I’m talking about seriously examining your life and seeing in what ways you’re not walking in step with Him in the yoke that He’s given you. Because if that’s not the case, then you’re not a disciple and don’t have the rest Christ offers. You just don’t - all you’re doing is deluding yourself into thinking you do, and spiritually fatal insomnia is just around the corner for you.

And so, if that’s you, then listen to verse 28:

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.”

Matthew 11:28-30 ESV

For those who come, you find something truly remarkable. You find that verse 30 is absolutely true! For the yoke Christ offers, though it be a yoke of bondage to HIM, it easy and light! And why? Because Christ bore the hardest and the heaviest of yokes, and He bore it upon the tree for us!

The burden we carried was sin, and it was a burden that would have crushed under the weight of God’s Divine wrath and judgment. But, in the great and infinite wisdom of God, God sent His Son to die for us, bearing the weight of our sin and divine judgment upon Himself, which was a weight that we never could have bore And so because Christ labored Because Christ was stricken and heaven laden Because Christ bore the hard and heavy yoke of God’s divine justice, He can now offer us His yoke which is easy and His burden which is light.

Are you laboring? Are you heavy laden? Are you restless? If so, come to Christ, and find rest for your soul!

This is the manuscript the sermon was preached from, so the recording may differ in places.