Photo: Scott Webb – Pexels
What is the first thing that comes into your head when you hear the word ‘rest’? My guess is that for most us a positive image comes into your mind – of something you enjoy doing, or a place you enjoy going to ‘get away’ and cease for a time from the hectic pace of life. And most of us know lots about a hectic pace of life at the moment: Many of us feel we are too busy, we are stressed, and we long for rest. And of course that is an important part of what ‘rest’ is. But in the Bible there’s also a deeper meaning. Rest is resting in God; it’s vital in this life; and it’s a glorious foretaste of the life to come.
This is the fourth in a series of posts considering the Means of Grace. In the first post we saw that Christians are on a journey with a destination: ‘being with Christ, enjoying Christ, being like Christ, and caught up in the life of the Trinity, in perfect joyful love forever.’ And we saw that that should affect our journey now. As theologian John Owen said,
One of the greatest privileges and advancements of believers, both in this world and into eternity consists in their beholding the glory of Christ.
John Owen
In subsequent posts we’ve seen that God gives us various things for that journey. He gives means of grace – or more specifically, he gives us himself. In this post we’re considering means of Grace connected to the idea of rest.
Our destination: Rest in God
The first thing to notice is that in the Bible, the destination of Christians is also described in terms of ‘rest’:
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
Hebrews 4:8-11
The writer of Hebrews is in the middle of a long section encouraging his Jewish-background, Christ-following readers to continue in their faith. And he’s reminding them of the experience of their ancestors in the wilderness, as set out in the book of Numbers. God had brought his people out of Egypt in the Exodus and had promised to give them a land. And the Jewish people thought of that land as being their place of rest, peace and shalom: life at its best. But that generation didn’t trust God and they refused to enter the land. They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. It was only the next generation led by Joshua that was able to enter their place of rest.
And then a few hundred years later Psalm 95 was written, encouraging the people of that time to remain faithful to God in the way that the wilderness generation were not faithful.
And God says:
I declared on oath in my anger ‘They shall never enter my rest.’
Psalm 95:11
Now in Hebrews 4:8-11 the writer takes those words from Psalm 95 and he says to his readers, after the coming of Christ: “The Promised land, Israel, was not the ultimate rest. There is another rest, a greater rest. And we need to remain faithful to Jesus in order to enter that rest.”
So this is another way of talking about our final destination – a place of eternal rest. And as we’ve seen, the destination is glorious: God is there; we are brought into the joyful, happy life of the Trinity; we will enjoy peace and happiness and joy forever in the presence of Father Son and Holy Spirit. We might say that being with and enjoying God and Christ is rest – ultimate rest.
Famously, we see the same in the words of Jesus recorded by Matthew:
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.
Matthew 11:28-30
As we come to Jesus – both now and into eternity – we find rest. We find joy, peace, well-being, life as it should be. The word used in Matthew 11 has the sense of being refreshed. And most notably in this passage we find the removal of burden. “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest – refreshment.”
On the journey: Rest from burdens
We now come to consider the journey. When we reach the destination there will be no burdens; but on the journey – during this life – there are many burdens:
1, Toilsome work
Work itself is not burdensome. Adam and Eve worked before the Fall, tending the garden: and they were happy as they rested in God. And there will be work to do in the new creation: We will rule the world with Jesus; we will colonise other planets and galaxies; there will be meaningful and enjoyable work to do. But in this fallen world work has become burdensome (Genesis 3:17-19): there is sweat and tears, frustration; there are unrealistic deadlines and expectations that are placed on us. It is from this burdensome work that in this life we need rest.
2, The burden, guilt and shame of our sin
We often turn away from God’s good, life-giving, other-focused ways, into self-centred sin. So often sin and temptation whisper promises of life; but as we taste the forbidden fruit we discover it is poisoned, bringing only death and sadness and shame (Genesis 3:1-19). And there’s also the sin that is done to us: those things which have been inflicted on us that have caused us pain and shame.
3, The burden of living in a fallen and broken world, with fallen and broken bodies.
We suffer in a thousand different ways; we get ill with countless different physical diseases; our mental and emotional health are affected; we become anxious and stressed; we burn out. And that’s not to mention the ravages of old age and earthquakes and pandemics and war.
4, Our own works mindset
It seems to me that each of us has built into us a deep-rooted desire to earn, achieve, and prove ourselves. For some of us this is more powerful and intense because of our personality or life experience; but it’s there in all of us. Of course it’s closely linked to the sin of pride – we want to prove ourselves, and succeed on our own. And I have no doubt that it’s linked to the first sin in the Garden, and the response of the first man and woman – covering themselves with fig leaves, as if that makes any difference at all (Genesis 3:7)!
And that deep-rooted desire can be intensified by religion when we try to earn our salvation or prove ourselves to God. It can also be intensified by the rules imposed on us by society.
So to summarise: We are burdened. And as Christians we’re often no less burdened than everyone else. In fact we have to admit that being part of a church family can sometimes add to the burden: because serving at church can be burdensome; other Christians are still sinners (and, by the way, so am I and so are you!); the brokenness of our fallen world is magnified in the illness and struggles of our brothers and sisters in the church family; and we can bring our desire for achievement and self-justification into the church community. Of course, being part of a church family is also a wonderful blessing – it’s a means of grace in itself, as we’ll explore in the final post. But we do need to recognise that sometimes it can add to the burden.
Means of grace 4: Sabbath Rest
What means of grace does God give each of us as we face these burdens? As we’ve seen previously, a means of grace is God giving himself to us on the journey: We bring a jar of water before God – something human, without value in itself – but by his Spirit our loving Father turns it into wine – he gives himself to us.
How does his giving himself to us bring rest from our burdens?
The first thing to notice is that we are whole beings, and so the rest that he brings must impact our whole selves. It’s been said that when pastors fall or give up, it’s often not so much because they forget that they’re Christian but because they forget that they’re human. We need to be mindful of each part of ourselves: certainly our spiritual state; but also our physical state, our emotional state, our mental state, and our relationships. For example, I was recently brought to the point of realising that whilst I was generally fine physically, mentally and spiritually, emotionally I was in trouble. So as we think about rest, we are thinking about our whole selves resting.
A mindset – Coming to Jesus
The first way he brings rest from our burdens is as we adopt the mindset of Coming to Jesus for rest. This is a heart attitude, a way of thinking that can permeate the whole of our life. Jesus famously said “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28). We can do this at any point in the day – or continually through the day. Recently I’ve found it helpful at the end of each task to consciously come to Jesus for rest – for example through a prayer, or listening to a worship song. Are you weary and burdened as you read this? Will you be weary and burdened at 11am tomorrow morning, or 3pm tomorrow afternoon? You can consciously come to Jesus for rest.
What might we consider as we come to Jesus? It may be helpful to think in terms of looking back, looking up and looking forward:
Looking back to the cross
As we come to Jesus for rest we can look back at the cross. See him taking all of your mess – your sin, shame, guilt and punishment – and taking it on himself. And that includes the mess that you’re inevitably going to create in the future – and whatever’s going to be done to you. If you’re trusting in Christ and repenting of your sin then your greatest burden – your sin – has already been removed.
Looking up to Christ and his heart
Then we can look up – to Christ in heaven as he is now seated at the right hand of the Father. We can remember, or learn, what is his attitude to us: Remembering that he is always praying for us (Hebrews 7:25); that he loves us; that he has compassion for us; that he wants to bear our burdens if we’ll ask him to. I’m reminded of the premise of Dane Ortlund’s book Gentle and Lowly. Ortlund shows us that these verses in Matthew 11:28-30 are the only place in the gospels where Jesus tells us what’s in his heart: That he is gentle and lowly.
This, according to his own testimony, is Christ’s very heart. This is who he is. Tender. Open. Welcoming. Accommodating. Understanding. Willing
Gentle and Lowly, page 21
This is good news for us as we come to Jesus: Jesus cares; he has compassion for us – in our suffering, in our sin; he’s not looking down on us with an angry frown; rather he enters with us into the pain. When as Christians we sin he is not first and foremost angry; first and foremost he is pitiful and compassionate towards us – like a doctor seeing a diseased patient. So we look up and we see Jesus who even now loves us and cares for us.
Looking forward to eternity
Finally we can look forward to eternity – when all our burdens will be completely removed. And there will be only rest, joy, love, and fruitful work.
A day – One day in seven
This is not the place to exegete the place of the Lord’s day in the Christian life. Suffice to say that personally I am convinced that God has given us one day in seven as a creation ordinance and a good gift for our own well-being.
What is the place of a day of rest in the context of the Means of Grace? Fundamentally the day of rest is an opportunity to step back from the rigours of normal life and to re-focus on rest, refreshment, and Jesus. We may be completely convinced of the importance of rest, and of coming to Jesus; we may be completely convinced of all we’ve considered regarding the Means of Grace so far. But in the busyness of life it can all be forgotten. We get out of the habit of reading our bible; we get out of the habit of praying. We certainly don’t take any time to think about our ultimate destination. And the practice of one day in seven enables us to stop everything else and re-focus on what really matters – finding rest in Jesus.
So the day of rest will involve physical rest; it will involve stopping our usual work, particularly the things that burden us. But it will involve more than that. It will involve a particular focus on coming to Jesus – finding rest and refreshment in him. Focusing on some of the means of grace we’ve thought about and will think about.
Here are the things Pete Scazzero suggests we might include:
1, Stop – All forms of “work” / what feels like work
2, Rest – What replenishes / energises you
3, Delight – in God, Creation, other people
4, Contemplate – Focus on Jesus
The Emotionally Healthy Leader – Peter Scazzero, 147-148
Should it be a Sunday? That depends. For many of us Sunday is the best day. We already have the rhythm of meeting with God’s people. But for some of us it can’t be a Sunday. If we’re very involved in serving at church (including, of course, as the pastor), or if we work on a Sunday then Sunday won’t be the best option.
A plan – Rhythms of grace planner
The third thing I find helpful is what I call a ‘Rhythms of grace planner.’ (This is similar to a ‘Rule of Life.’) This is a personal document that sets out how the Means of Grace (including Rest) will help you personally as you live your life and ministry. As you understand yourself more and more, it enables you to tailor a way of life that enables you to walk closely to God and be refreshed by him.
As an aside, I would encourage you as part of this process to ask God to show you yourself. I prayed that prayer recently, and I was amazed at what God revealed – and he’s changed my way of operating completely as a result!
Below is the outline that I use. Notice that I have included specific reference to the things that refresh and energise me; and the things that drain me.
Taking it further
The Emotionally Healthy Leader – Peter Scazzero
Gentle and Lowly – Dane Ortlund
Formed for the Glory of God – Kyle Strobel
Imperfect Pastor 