Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro – A college age daughter was home from school complaining about her car’s gas mileage.

Dad asked what it was and she replied, “I’m not sure.”

Dad replied, “Well, all you have to do is check the odometer when the tank is full, check it again on empty, then divide the number of gallons it took to fill up into the miles you drove.”

The daughter replied, “That won’t work.”

Her father said, “Why not?

The math is easy.”

She replied, “It’s not that.

The problem is I never have enough money to fill up the tank.”

Ever feel like you’re operating on an empty tank?

We want to be part of God’s work – but by the time we keep up with a demanding boss, dependent kids, deserving spouses, defective plans and dire emergencies, we’re running on empty with no resources in sight.

Sometimes we need to step back.

So did Jesus.

The disciples have just returned from their first solo ministry.

They are physically and emotionally spent.

Also human tragedy has intruded.

John the Baptist had been imprisoned for condemning Herod for stealing his brother’s wife.

Matt 14:6-12 takes up the story: “But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod (at a drunken party, Herodias’s daughter provides seductive entertainment, perhaps at the direction of her mother), 7 so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.

8 (She says, “Wait a minute,” tiptoes out to talk to Mom and returns) Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.”

9 And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given.

10 He sent and had John beheaded in the prison, 11 and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.

12 And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus.”

So Jesus’ cousin and forerunner dies in this gory manner.

Jesus knows Herod is looking for Him too, so He decides to retire to a quiet place for rest, to hear the apostle’s report, and to gain some perspective.

There is still much for the disciples to learn.

So He takes them to a wilderness area near Bethsaida – a fishing village on the northeast shore, east of the Jordan and outside Herod’s territory.

It’s “stepping back time.”

We all need occasions when a retreat is in order.

I see 3 lessons here to help us re-order or gain perspective for ministry.

*I.

Cherish God’s Rest*

V. 10b, “And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida.”

The word “withdrew” originally meant a military retreat -- a withdrawal from the front lines – very appropriate to what Jesus is doing here.

It’s also used in Luke 5:16, “But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.”

Jesus regularly stepped back for reflection and prayer.

That’s what He’s teaching.

Did you ever wonder why God made man with the need for rest?

He could have created us as energizer bunnies, right?

Or a Timex watch that just keeps on ticking!

No need for sleep, no downtime – just continual activity.

God could have made us that way, but didn’t.

Why?

I think He knew if we weren’t forced to slow down, we would give very little thought to a God we can’t see.

He desires relationship, but that doesn’t happen when we’re buzzing around at top speed.

So, He made us to need rest, relaxation, reflection and renewal.

So, the principle of rest is seen in Creation from Day 1 (or Day 7!).

That’s the day God rested.

Was He tired?

Of course not.

He was establishing a principle for our benefit.

Work 6; rest 1.

We are far too casual with a principle to which God attaches great importance.

Listen to the last item in His law: Exodus 16:12ff.: “And the LORD said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.

14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you.

Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death.

(Skip to 17) 17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”

Seems pretty important to God, wouldn’t you say?

More than to us?

In Lev 25:4 ff, God provides a rest for the land.

The people are to farm for 6 years, but in the 7th, they are to let the land rest.

He anticipates the question in Lev 25:20, “20 And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’

21 I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years.”

Even more, every 50th year was a Year of Jubilee when land returned to original families; servants were released from bondage and the land lay fallow again.

God claims authority in Lev 25:23, “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine.

For you are strangers and sojourners with me.”

There’s the principle: Everything we have – land, houses, property and even our bodies, is not ours.

It’s on loan.

God wants it managed His way, and the principle of rest is part of the lease agreement.

Paul appeals for sexual morality on the same basis in I Cor 6:18-20: “Flee from sexual immorality.

Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?

You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price.

So glorify God in your body.”

Rest was was unique to Israel in the ancient world; so was sexual morality.

God’s people are to be different.

We are His own, not our own!

Is God serious?

He promises blessing for obedience in Lev 26.

But beginning Lev 26:14 He promises to deliver them into captivity if they fail.

Then in Lev 26:34 He says, 34 “Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths.

35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it.”

If they won’t rest the land, He will remove them.

And that is exactly what happened.

Ezek 20:23-24 says God gave them to Babylon because they profaned His Sabbath.

Seventy years of captivity to make up for 490 years’ worth of missed Sabbaths.

They wouldn’t rest the land, so God did.

“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap” (Gal 6:7).

Two guys are walking down the street carrying attaché cases and looking pretty down-in-the-mouth.

One says to the other, “Thanks to computers and wireless technology, I’m expected to work almost anywhere and anytime.”

All too true, isn’t it?

And unless we establish God-sanctioned boundaries we will burn out.

We are designed to step back occasionally – body and soul.

But rest has an far more profound meaning in Heb 4:9-10, “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.”

This is the spiritual rest of people who realize salvation can never be earned!

No amount of good deeds, prescribed rituals, or attempts at obeying God’s law can save us.

No amount.

Ever.

By His death and resurrection, Jesus did it all.

What is left for us to do? Rest in Him – by faith.

That is the ultimate meaning of rest.

It is either rest – or die eternally!