Sermon Tone Analysis

Well last year, summer vacation really wasn’t summer vacation.

You ever had one of those vacations?

Here’s how I spent my vacation last summer…

*SHOW PHOTOS*

Last summer, Beck and the boys took off to Kansas City to spend some time with her sister… and I stayed back to pull up 1,800 square feet of mostly carpet, and then put down 1,800 square foot of new flooring down.

Some vacation… right?

Here’s the thing though… I had never put flooring down.

I had helped do a room or two when Darrell & Sharon built their house… but I didn’t have to do any of the cutting or going around corners, or any of that stuff.

And so I needed some help.

Well… My childhood best friend is a professional floor layer.

That’s Brian laying some flooring there.

And so, he agreed to come put the flooring down for me at a ridiculously stupid low rate… he just asked me to be the grunt laborer.

Meaning… Moving the furniture… Pulling up all the old carpet… Pulling up all old staples… that kind of stuff.

No big deal.

So… before Brian left every day, he would say… We’ll do these rooms tomorrow.

And so, I’d get a quick bite to eat, then I start moving furniture, ripping out carpet, getting as much of the prep work done as I was able… that way, he could come in and just start laying flooring.

Most nights, I worked from about 8 in the morning til close to midnight.

For a guy that… look… I was raised by a small business owner… raised to be hard worker… I’ve had as many as 4 jobs at one time before… but none of them have ever really been hard manual labor.

And for a guy that isn’t used to hard manual labor, 16-hours a day of hard manual labor was killing me.

By the time our floors were done… which was the end of my vacation… I needed some rest!

By the way… Brian’s work is fantastic.

I highly recommend him if you ever need some flooring done.

It’s just not an ideal way to spend vacation… and at the end of it, I needed some rest!

I mention that because… have you ever noticed that practically everyone you talk to is crazy busy?

We’ve created an economy where both adults in a household have to work full time to survive… many times, at least one of them is doing overtime… we’re running the kids from basketball practice… to band concert… to another school function… we’re constantly running all the time.

And in the process of all that… we need 6 cups of coffee just to make it through… and we end the day wishing there were just a few more hours in the day to accomplish everything we wanted.

Many people don’t remember the last time they felt rested… like… really rested.

And it kind of flies in the face of how we ended last week… right?

Last week, we talked about how we are to be a people that see the real Jesus… not a Jesus of our own liking… not a Jesus with our own overlays… but Jesus, as the Bible portrays Him.

And to see the real Jesus, we must come to Him in humility.

And then… and only then… will we find rest.

Jesus finished chapter 11 by saying… well… let’s just read it again.

What is this rest that Jesus speaks of?

If we come to Jesus in humility to find rest… what is it that we actually discover when we get there?

If you have your Bible, and I hope that you do, turn with me to Matthew chapter 12. Lucky for us… Matthew in his literary genius, explains for us what this rest is… what it looks like.

And he does this by interacting with a couple of quick stories in chapter 12.

And what we see is that rest isn’t exactly what we think it is.

We tend to view rest as cessation of activity… Right?

You’ve been cleaning the house all day… and it’s time to rest… what do you do?

You flop down on the couch for a while.

We see rest as cessation of activity.

But what I’ve noticed, at least in my own life, is that I have a tendency to oscillate between manic activity and doing absolutely nothing.

And as I oscillate between those 2, I find myself constantly worn out… but never really rested.

Anyone else like this?

I mean… Why is this?

Because ceasing activity is not the same thing as rest.

It’s part of it… but it’s only one slice of the pie.

So… What’s rest then?

Before we begin reading chapter 12, I want to give you a Biblical sense of how rest is defined.

There are at least 3 key components that the Bible gives us about rest… not saying these are the only 3… but these 3 seem to be key in understanding rest.

The 1st key is security.

In the book of Joshua, rest is used to describe when Israel is secure in the land and no longer at war with other nations.

2nd… Paul uses the word rest to describe being around other Christians.

He’s tired, he’s weary from his journey… and being around other Christians brings refreshment and comfort.

And then 3rd is the one that you’re very familiar with… that rest is cessation of activity.

It’s when you stop doing stuff… you stop striving… you stop trying to accomplish.

These 3 definitions of rest will help make Matthew chapter 12 make more sense.

So let’s read together.

Matthew chapter 12, verse 1…

So, we have an issue here.

Let’s 1st understand that what the disciples are doing here would be perfectly acceptable… if it weren’t the sabbath.

Field owners, according to Old Testament law, were supposed to leave some grain behind so that if you’re walking through, and you’re hungry, you could grab a quick bit to eat.

So this isn’t stealing or anything like that.

This is perfectly legit for 6 days of the week.

But on the sabbath, there was this no work kind of thing.

So, the Pharisees see the disciples going into the field to get food… which was by law considered work… and they begin to accost Jesus… You guys can’t do that!

Jesus responds.

Again… a reminder… we’re on the heels of… Come to me and I will give you rest.

Matthew 12 is now going to explain that rest to us.

Jesus answers the Pharisees… Verse 3…

Jesus basically says… Hey, you guys have the read the Bible… right?

Don’t you remember what King David did when they were on the run?

They ran into the temple and grabbed some bread that they weren’t supposed to grab… it was only for the priests.

Now… It’s really important that we understand what Jesus is doing here.

Notice that he’s not really answering the Phairsees objection… instead… Jesus is saying something WAY bigger.

Let’s pause for a moment and think about how the Pharisees would’ve responded to this.

Parents of multiple children… let me see your hands?

Did you ever allow one of your children to do something… maybe because they were old enough or something… and then your younger kiddo thinks… oh I’ll go do that too.

And when you say to younger kid no… you hear… well it’s only fair that I get to do it… you let them do it.

I think that’s basically what the Pharisees are hearing from Jesus.

And they would’ve been thinking… But that was King David… Your not King David… you’re just 13 crazy guys walking around taking food on the Sabbath when you shouldn’t be.

It’s important to understand that what Jesus is doing here… he IS comparing Himself favorably to King David.

He’s saying… if that King can do it… certainly this King do it.

And by that implication, He makes a very strong statement.

I am your King.

What do Kings do?

Kings give security.

A king’s job is to make the kingdom that he oversees safe for his people.

Jesus is saying… I’m the King who gives rest by giving security.

That was our first definition of rest earlier… Wasn’t it?

Can I tell you something?

There is no safer place to be than in Christ.

A couple of years back, we showed the movie Tortured For Christ… the story of Richard Wurmbrand.

Wurmbrand was imprisoned by the Nazis for standing on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Tortured For Christ is his story.

I want to show you a quick clip…

*SHOW VIDEO*

Is it possible that Richard Wurmbrand was at rest durning his imprisonment?

Jesus says in John chapter 10…

We need not fear situations or people who threaten our well-being, whether in a physical or spiritual sense.