Not many of you have had a chance to visit our apartment since we moved in, but if you have, you’ve probably been in our spare bedroom. Right now, it’s a haven for our foster cats. We have 9 foster cats right now, including 7 8-week old kittens. In that bedroom, we also have a single bed so we can entertain guests and give them a place to sleep. It’s a simple bed, just a mattress with a piece of plywood for support. The problem with the plywood, though, is it’s not quite big enough for the bed-frame. So, in theory, you could push it completely over to one side and it COULD be pushed through the frame, dumping you to the floor.
This…happened to me. I came into the bedroom one day and laid down in the bed…I don’t remember why I wouldn’t just go lay down in our comfortable bed, but can assure you it had nothing to do with being KICKED out of that one. I laid down in the bed, wanting to take a load off for a few minutes, but what I got was a trip to the floor and the annoyance of having to fix the bed back up. I looked for rest, but I was let down.
Now, this is my office chair. I got it from Walmart. I like it. I mean, I LIKE it. Really, I love it. I have never owned a chair quite this comfortable. It’s probably the second-best purchase we made in anticipation of moving here. The first was our wonderfully comfortable couch. I can sit in this chair and really take a load off. It reclines. I can lean my head back and rest it on its high back. I find comfort in this chair. I find rest in this chair.
It’s interesting…after the collapsing of the bed incident, I have never really been able to trust that bed again. When I lay down in it, I never fully trust that I am safe. I never fully trust that it won’t come out from under me; that it will support me. On the flip side, I rest in this chair; I am comfortable in this chair because I trust it. It has never let me down. I have never had it collapse under me or break on me. I trust the chair to support me and I rest in the chair because I trust it. But…if that trust is broken…if the chair for whatever reason breaks, there will be a part of me that will distrust it. And that distrust will prevent me from ever truly resting in this chair again. Because rest requires trust. I don’t trust that bed, therefore I cannot rest in it. Sure, I could sleep in it if I had to. I can sleep, but I would not rest. Rest requires trust.
Many of us here this morning are tired. We have had long, busy weeks…even with a holiday thrown in…or because of it. We come in here with heavy hearts. We come in distracted. We come in burdened. We come in hurting. We come in weary. We are tired. We live in a go-go-go society and we get caught up in it. We subscribe to the world of fast cars, fast money, and fast internet and we frown on taking it slow. We are scared to take a rest. I have too much to do. And we run ourselves ragged. We become weary. We are heavy burdened.
This morning, if you have your Bibles with you, would you turn to the book of Matthew, chapter 11, beginning in verse 28. It will be a familiar passage to you, I’m sure, we’ll read the three verses to end the chapter: 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."
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”. You may remember I said earlier that rest requires trust and so it begs the question, can we trust Him? Can we trust God? Can we rest in Him knowing that He will hold us up, knowing that He will not let us fall? Or will He, like that bed, collapse beneath us. Will He just let us fall to the ground?
Many of you are familiar with the book series by C.S. Lewis called The Chronicles of Narnia. If you’re not, you will be familiar with the movie series. If not, you’ve probably been living under a rock somewhere until this very point. The Chronicles of Narnia have been a best-seller for years and contains many parallels of Jesus in it.
In the first book of the series, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, perhaps you’ll recall the scene when the children are with Mr. & Mrs. Beaver and they’re first being told about Aslan. Fascinated, young Lucy asks if Aslan is a man. To which Mr. Beaver replies, “Aslan a man! Certainly not. I tell you, he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea....”. Susan, Lucy’s older sister replies by saying “I’d thought he was a man. Is he--quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion." Mrs. Beaver replied, “That you will, dearie, and no mistake, if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly." Lucy, a little frightened at this point asks, “Then he isn’t safe?" To which Mr. Beaver responds, “Safe? Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you!”
God wants us to come to him, to bring our lives to Him, to enter into His presence. Sometimes, we like to think that God is safe. He’s a tame God. We like to hold Him at arms length. But as the God of the universe, like Aslan, He is not safe. But He is good. He is the King.
Pastor and author Mark Buchanan calls entering into the presence of God and living in His rest “The Holy Wild”. We enter the Holy Wild where we can live face-to face with the beautiful, dangerous God of creation, where we live life fully, and we walk with God. It’s where God doesn’t make sense out of our disasters…or our boredom, but he meets us continually in the thick of them. It is in this place, in this Holy Wild, in the life lived in His presence, that we can find rest for our souls.
But rest requires trust. And before we can rest in God, we need to know who He is. We need to understand His character. And moreover, we need to know Him, know Him intimately, in our very core. It’s not just about understanding who He is. This is about knowing God so thoroughly that we trust Him completely, that we can rest fully in Him.
This morning, we will look at three attributes of God that we can rest in. Three ways that we can know God so intimately that we trust Him completely.
The first is this: we can rest in God’s holiness. We can rest in God’s holiness.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
The prophet Isaiah masterfully penned the vision he saw of the holiness of the Lord. We sing of it together, “Holy, holy holy, Lord God Almighty. Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee”.
But for many of us, holiness has been cheapened. We look at God and ascribe His holiness into a series of do’s and do not’s. He has become the old man who scolds and scowls. He is the jury, judge and executioner out to get us, just waiting for us to screw up.
But when this becomes your definition of holiness, you miss the picture entirely. You see, God’s holiness is something we can rest in because He wants us to share in his holiness with Him.
There are two common meanings to the word holy, as it is attributed to God. The first means “wholly other”. God’s essence, His being is not bound up in this world. He is totally separate from this world. God’s essence is not altered by the happenings in this world. This is a holiness that only He can partake in.
It is the second meaning of holiness that He wants us to partake in. This is the holiness that means simply “wholeness”, perfect health. The holy God is without blemish or weakness. He embodies perfection. This is the holiness that God calls us to pursue. Leviticus 11:44 declares “I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.”
He wants us to rest in His holiness so that we can become like Him, without blemish. There’s an old hymn, perhaps you know it, that went like this “It’s a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, washed in the blood of the lamb!”
This is the holiness that God calls us to. His holiness. His wholeness.
The interesting thing about pursuing His holiness is that there is only one way to get there from here, and that is worship. You see, I don’t believe that we can rest in God’s holiness because we contemplate our way into it. We can’t reason our way into it. You cannot achieve it through debate or through careful study. Only through worship, when we enter the throne room of God and become intimate with Him, can we become holy, as He is holy, without spot or wrinkle. When we enter into that intimate, worshipful relationship with Him, we can rest in His holiness.
The second attribute of God that we can rest in is this: we can rest in God’s mercy. We can rest in God’s mercy.
Luke 10:30: Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ’Look after him,’ he said, ’and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
Jesus told this parable after an expert in the law asked Jesus how to inherit eternal life and Jesus responded, “Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself”. The man then asked the famous, “Who is my neighbor?”
Most times when I hear this parable preached on, I am often admonished to be like the Samaritan and show mercy to those around me. But look at the question Jesus asked, “which was these three was the neighbor to the man?” Is it possible, that Jesus could have been looking at this man and saying, “You are the man who was beaten, and robbed and left for dead on the side of the road. You are the one who needs mercy”?
The place to start to understand God’s mercy in our lives is to understand how much we are in need of it. We need to realize that we are the ones in the ditch, on the side of the road, bleeding and dying with no way out. There’s nothing we can do to save ourselves.
It’s by God’s grace that He comes along and gives us what we don’t deserve, a second chance…really a first chance. A chance to live life to its fullest. That is what’s so amazing about grace!
I once heard of the grand old hymn “Amazing Grace” being sung at a Christian conference as a special. The vocalist performed it wonderfully, but the song had one fatal flaw. Listen to the lyrics that were sung:
“Amazing grace how sweet that sound
That saved a soul like me…
I once was lost but now I’m found
Was blind but now I see”
Did you catch it? There was a word changed. Simple, but fatal. “That saved a soul like me”. Small…but it changes everything. Over the last several decades, we have gone from knowing we were wretches in need of grace, to being morally neutral souls that need a pick-me-up.
John Newton knew he was a wretch. He knew that it was only because of God’s grace that he was saved. God’s mercy is great. It is amazing. And when we understand how amazing it is, we can then rest in that grace so amazing. That mercy so sweet that it saved me out of the pit. It saved me when I was dying on the side of the road and He picked me up.
The third and final attribute of God that we will look at this morning is this: we can rest in God’s victory. We can rest in God’s victory!
Revelation 5:5: Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals." Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.
Skip down to verse 9: And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"
The Lamb that was slain has emerged triumphant. His victory is total. And we have that victory in our lives. God has proclaimed that we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.
When Martin Luther King was assassinated, it threatened to undermine the entire civil rights movement. It was already fragile, but without King’s leadership, the movement threatened collapse. At his funeral, one man, James Bevel, shared in a heavy voice, “There is a false rumor going around that our leader is dead. Our leader is not dead. Martin Luther King is not our leader.” He paused to let his words sink in and then continued, “Our leader is the Man who led Moses out of Egypt. Our leader is the Man who went with Daniel into the lion’s den. Our leader is the Man who walked out of the grace on Easter morning. Our leader neither sleeps nor slumbers. He cannot be put in jail. He has never lost a war yet. Our leader is not dead!”
Our leader is not dead. He is alive! And he is victorious. And we can press on. We are more than conquerors through Him that loves us. Jesus conquered through the cross. Through His sacrifice. His triumph was proclaimed through His resurrection.
We can rest in that victory. We can know that He has already won. He has already overcome. He has given us the victory and we can claim that victory today. It encapsulates our first two points this morning.
Through His victory, we can rest in His holiness. Through His victory, we can rest in His mercy. We have victory, this morning. Victory over sin. Victory over Satan. We have victory in Jesus Christ.
And one day, we will see that final victory, where at the name of Jesus, you know this, “every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
We can rest in His victory!
This morning, as we close, there’s really not much more I can say. This morning, Jesus is inviting you to come and rest in Him. He wants us to know Him so intimately that we can trust Him fully and rest completely in Him. He has given us His holiness, with which we can be complete, whole, in perfect health, without a spot or blemish. He has given us His mercy, by which we are saved, by which he comes to us when we are dying and broken and He restores us when we could not restore ourselves. And He gives us His victory, complete and eternal, where we become more than conquerors through Him.
There’s so much more we can say and this morning, I encourage you to enter into His presence and know Him. Truly know Him. Become so intimate with Him that you trust Him with your life and that you rest in His love.
And now May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
Go in the peace and rest that comes from knowing Him in the most deep and intimate ways.
