The Peace for Our Work

God has a way of often organizing my life so that I’m either convicted by the passages of Scripture I’m preparing to preach or I get to see it illustrated in something else that’s going on. Today, we’re looking at the idea of rest for our work, and I feel like I’ve gotten to experience both.

It was a long work week. It was a busy work week. Good, but busy. And then Saturday rolled around—which was my day off—and instead of doing anything that resembled “rest”, we decided to fill up our schedule. We started the morning trying to leave early for a tailgate party in Baton Rouge before the LSU game. If you don’t know this about me, I’m both an introvert and not an LSU fan.

But we were given free tickets as a gift through one of the organizations that supports our new church, so we figured we should go. Only, getting out the door with a 1 year old and a 3 year old is never simple, so we missed the tailgate, got Chick-fil-A instead, and drove around forever trying to look for a place to park over a mile away from the stadium. We got plenty of walking in yesterday.

Of course, we also couldn’t stay for the entire game because we had to get to another part of Baton Rouge where we had tickets for a corn maze, petting zoo, and pumpkin patch. Our kids loved it. We had a great time. But once we got back to our house early yesterday evening, we were exhausted. 

If you have young kids or kids that play sports, then you probably are familiar with the myth that is a “restful Saturday.” You might even struggle to define what “rest” is. And then there’s things like technology that promise it’ll make our lives more efficient, but that seems to have just allowed us to cram more stuff in.

The past two weeks we’ve been in the book of Genesis, and the end of the creation narrative says in Genesis 2:1-2 that when God finished his work that he had done, he rested on the seventh day and blessed that day and made it holy. Later on in the 10 Commandments, we see that affirmed again when God tells his people to remember the Sabbath.

Rest is both biblical and beneficial, and much of how the Bible talks about it relates it to our work. So, how do we do it? How do we find rest with our work when it might feel like you don’t know how to have much rest in any part of your life? I don’t want this message to be, “Here’s how the Bible says rest is important. Now, go and rest better.” That just puts the burden on you to understand it and apply it without any real direction. That sets you up for more stress and guilt over the things you believe you should do but you don’t know how to do.

No, I want to use part of this morning to look to Scripture and understand what biblical rest really is, and then see how that connects with the way we work (and the way we cease from our work). To start, let’s look at those two verses I mentioned in Genesis 2.

Genesis 2:2–3 ESV

² And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. ³ So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

So, how did God “rest” here? That word in the Hebrew literally means to “cease” or “desist”. Clearly, what’s being communicated is that God stopped doing work. But what is it that he did instead? These verses at the start of chapter 2 focus on how God ceased from his work, but when we back up to the last verse of chapter 1, we see what God actually did when he finished his work at the end of the 6th day:

Genesis 1:31 ESV

³¹ And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

God didn’t just stop his work and do nothing. No, he reflected and rejoiced in what he had accomplished. He enjoyed what he had made. And this is incredibly important for how we understand biblical rest today because when we look at the 10 Commandments and God telling his people to remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy, he grounds that commandment in how God rested from creation back in Genesis. In Exodus 20:8-11 he says,

Exodus 20:8–11 ESV

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

This means that our rest is meant to be modeled after God’s rest. And God was not passive. He didn’t get tired or overstressed with his work and needed a breather. No, biblical rest is more about where we turn our attention than what we do or don’t accomplish. It’s ceasing our focus on what we need to achieve and enjoying what God has achieved in us, through us, and around us. Put simply, we rest well when we enjoy God, his creation, and the fruits of the work he’s given us. It’s a commandment meant for our joy.

But the problem is: we’re not God, and we do have to deal with the effects of sin like we looked at last week. So, we do get exhausted from our work. We do need breaks, physically and mentally. We struggle with stress from expectations to get more done or do our work better—both from inside of us as well as maybe the bosses over us. God gave us rest for our joy, but because of sin we need rest to survive.

We don’t just need Sabbath rest one day a week to reflect upon and enjoy what God has done through our work (though we do need that). Our hearts also need ongoing rest to enjoy God while we labor in the brokenness and challenges of our work—both when we’re in it, and when we’re intentionally ceasing from it. And Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28-30 from our passage this morning addresses both.

Matthew 11:28–30 ESV

²⁸ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ 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. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

If you’re tired this morning—from your job outside your home to raising kids inside your home. If you’re feeling overworked, overstressed, and overburdened, the invitation of this entire sermon is verse 28. Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” That’s the offer of the gospel, and because the gospel affects all of life, Christ’s offer of rest meets us in our work as well.

Jesus is deepening our understanding of what it means to rest. Because what he says next in verses 29 and 30 aren’t purely the cessation of our work. His invitation to rest isn’t an invitation to do nothing. Notice the imagery that Jesus uses. He tells the crowd to take his “yoke” upon them. If you’re unfamiliar with what a yoke is, it’s a type of gear that joins two animals together at the neck so that they work together.

Jesus didn’t say to come sit on his back and kick your feet up. He didn’t tell them that if they were going to follow him that they wouldn’t do anymore work. No, the rest he’s providing comes with a new approach to the way they work. When you’re yoked with someone else, it’s impossible for you to keep working alone. You can’t put all your trust in your own ability anymore because you have someone working with you.

You would think that if Jesus wanted to provide us with rest that he would offer us a “yoke-less life”, but here he tells us that the answer to being over-burdened in our work isn’t the elimination of our work; it’s to re-align how we work.

He doesn’t remove our yoke; he offers us his yoke, which is easy, and the burden is light. He doesn’t remove our work; he allows us to join him in his work and learn from him. He doesn’t just give us rest in our jobs; he provides rest for our souls—both for our salvation in eternity and for our productivity here and now.

Resting in Jesus enables us to step into the God-given purpose for our work as we reflect his image while we fill and subdue his creation in our particular industry.

It’s like swimming with the current of a river. We were designed to rest in God’s work and enjoy him as the foundation for the work that he’s given us.

But yet, so often we try to swim against the current of God designing us in his image. Like the people building the tower of Babel that we looked at last week in Genesis 11, we want to make a name for ourselves. Or maybe we’ve never known any other way to approach our work besides trying to carry the yoke all on our own. And so we don’t know how to experience the kind of joyful rest that Scripture talks about.

In verse 28, Jesus invites us to come to him, but in the verses right before that we see two other places we often look to instead of Jesus as we try to find the kind of rest that only he provides. Let’s go back and read verse 25-26.

Matthew 11:25–26 ESV

²⁵ 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; ²⁶ yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

Right out the gate Matthew makes a connection between this section and what came before by using the phrase, “At that time.” He’s telling us that what Jesus says next is related to what he had just been teaching about. It’s happening “at that time” (at the same time). And in the paragraph before, we see Jesus calling out several cities: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you Bethsaida [and Capernaum].”

What was the problem in those cities? Matthew summarizes it in verse 20: “Then [Jesus] began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.” So, the people had seen Jesus perform miracles, but that didn’t lead them to turn from their sin and trust in him as their Messiah (or their Savior). And so when Matthew transitions to the passage we’re looking at this morning, he’s sharing Jesus’ explanation for why these cities didn’t repent—to use Jesus’ word in verse 28—why they didn’t “come” to him.

And he does so through a prayer to the Father, thanking him that he “[has] hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.” There’s a lot to break down here. Let’s start with the phrase, “these things.” What “things” is he referring to? Well, that would be the connection he’s making to the cities he just got finished talking about. Even though they saw Jesus perform miracles, they didn’t repent and come to him. They didn’t see him as their Savior and Lord.

In verse 25, Jesus is saying that that knowledge, the knowledge that Jesus is the Messiah, is hidden by the Father from the wise and understanding. That begs a couple questions. First, why would the Father do that? Why would he hide the knowledge that Jesus is the Son of God able to save us from our sin and restore us in right relationship with him? The Greek word that’s used for “hidden” there is in the active voice, meaning this isn’t just something that naturally happens; it’s something God actively does. Why?

I was a know-it-all as a kid, and I found opportunities to argue with my mom about the most insignificant things just because I thought I was right and could prove her wrong. Often—very often—I was wrong. But sometimes, I happened to be right.

And when I was right, my mom still might not concede that I was right. She might change the subject or get onto me for talking back to her. But she knew, because of all of my pride, that it wouldn’t help me when I was trying to arrogantly win an argument if she just gave me an opportunity to pat myself on the back.

A lot of us think that we’re good with God because we know enough about God—we think that our study or our intellect is what brings us closer to him. And while there’s plenty of evidence for our Creator throughout his creation, Jesus is saying here that the Father has actively made it so that our access to information or our ability to build an argument or all the things we think we know are insufficient to lay hold of the good news of Jesus Christ, repent of our sin, and submit to him as the king over our lives.

The apostle Paul elaborates on this in his first letter to the church in Corinth. In 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, he describes the gospel saying,

1 Corinthians 1:27–29 ESV

²⁷ 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; ²⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, ²⁹ so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

If you could study your way to salvation, then you would be achieving it in your own power. Why would we need God’s Holy Spirit to change our hearts if we can figure out how to follow him on our own? Not to mention, so much of the world would be lost without hope because they’re without the same education and resources that we have here.

But, as Jesus says at the start of verse 25, “I thank you, Father” that that’s not the case. That God chose what is foolish in the world—that we could only save our lives by surrendering them—that we are raised with him when we humble ourselves before him. As long as you pride yourself on your wisdom and understanding, then whatever religious path you’re following, Jesus isn’t at the center of it.

God has hidden the truth of the gospel from eyes who are full of themselves. Instead, he’s revealed it to little children, like we read at the end of verse 25. Children, who simply trust in Jesus. And, in verse 26, he calls this the Father’s “gracious will”. It is a gracious thing that we would not come to know God through our own ability. Both the wise and the child, the person who grew up in church and the person who’s never attended church—we all come to know the Father the same way: through Christ alone.

The church should be ground zero for the death of our self-sufficiency, not the enablement of it. A healthy community of believers won’t be able to come together just to consume knowledge and feed their private faith. The faith of a child implies dependency and vulnerability. A church is a place to grow in your knowledge of Christ, but that’s because it’s a place to be known, to be served, and to serve with members of his body.

When we rely on our own self-sufficiency, on our own knowledge—both in life and in our work—then we end up bearing our own burdens, and the rest that Jesus invites us to escapes us. 

At some point, our knowledge taps out. We get to a place where we’re needy and insufficient for the work in front of us. Maybe it’s a mistake you made at work. Maybe it’s a tough schedule, and you feel like you’re burning the candle at both ends for so long that you don’t know how you can last another week. Maybe it’s that boss that never seems to be on the same page with you, or maybe you’re the boss, and some of your employees are driving you crazy.

When we get to that place of feeling like we don’t know enough to handle what’s in front of us—like we’re not enough—that’s when we find ourselves stressed and anxious in our work. But the gospel offers us a better way. Gospel rest isn’t about what you know; it’s about who you know. And the one who invites us to rest in him, even in the midst of our work, describes himself in verse 29 as “gentle and lowly.”

We tend to assume that the way out of our stress at work is to simply learn more—to have a better read on the situation, to get all the facts, to have a clear action plan in place. All those things make us feel more like we’re in control. And, once again, this is why the good news of Jesus is hidden from the wise and understanding—because if we take his yoke, that means that we’re giving up control. It’s his yoke, not ours. We live our lives now with him and for him.

So now, when problem come up in your work—and they always will—but when problems come up, your hope doesn’t have to be in learning enough to control the situation. Because, look at verse 29: Jesus says we can learn from him. We can learn more and more about who he is and what he’s done for us, and that knowledge—the knowledge of how he’s in control—resting in that sets us free from our anxious need to feel in control of the work we do.

We can still be diligent and prepared and work hard, but we can do so with Christ’s gentle and lowly spirit as we follow our Lord who has yoked himself to us as we work. Jesus is the source of rest for our minds, but he’s also the source of rest for our hands as well. Let’s keep reading in verses 27-28.

Matthew 11:27–28 ESV

²⁷ 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. ²⁸ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

When Jesus offers that invitation—when he tells the labored and heavy laden to come to him for rest—the implication is that they couldn’t find their own rest without him. Their best efforts didn’t make them restful; it made them tired and revealed their neediness.

Think about what a “good day” looks like for you in your work. Maybe you hit your deadlines, no one get upset with you, you finish your checklist, the kids take a decent nap. Even after that good day, you still have wake up and tackle the next day. Each day isn’t always good, and even the good ones can leave you feeling tired at the end.

Our best efforts still fall short of creating sustainable satisfaction. We can’t maintain our need for rest and joy. That’s why, if you ask any of the parents of babies and toddlers in this church—and we have several—if you ask us how we’re doing or how our week’s been, the first thing that comes to my mind is how well my kids have slept (and how well I’ve slept).

In the first week of our series, we looked at how the gospel enables the God-given purpose of our work. Last week, we looked at how the gospel gives us hope in the midst of the problems with our work. And now, we see that the gospel is the only true source of lasting peace for our work. No amount of effort, no level of performance can achieve an abiding rest that stays with us through the good days and the bad.

But Jesus can because who he is and what he does isn’t dependent on what we’re able to achieve on our own. Actually, it’s recognizing our inability that qualifies us to rest in what he’s accomplished for us.

And we see that need made clear in verse 27 as we close this morning. Jesus is able to offer us rest because all things—all authority—has been handed over to him by his Father. And that relationship between the Father and the Son matter. For one, calling him “my Father” and not simply “the Father” would have come off to the Jews as calling himself divine like God. 

But also, that imagery of that relationship is the grounds for Jesus saying that no one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and those whom the Son chooses to reveal him. No one knows them the way they know each other, and so if we’re going to experience the gifts of the Father, the only way we can come to know him is through the Son.

Even when Peter, the disciple, proclaims that Jesus is the Christ 5 chapters later in Matthew 16, Jesus responds that “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” Just like we’ll see when we get back to our study in John and continue in John 6 next month, it’s the Father who teaches us about the Son, and then it is our relationship with the Son who unites us with the Father.

We can’t do any of that on our own. We can’t come to know God without that knowledge being given to us. We can’t make ourselves right with God without Christ’s righteousness being given to us. 

Whether your primary work is inside or outside the home, through a career or in retirement—if you labor, then you need rest—both in your work and from it. And trusting in what Christ has done for you rather than trying to learn it or earn it yourself is the only way to consistently have a rest that results in joy as you reflect on what God is doing in and through you (both in the good and in the bad).

That’s why, in the very next set of verses, we see Jesus declare that he “is lord of the Sabbath.” When we see our work through the lens of what he’s accomplished for us and the purpose that he’s given to us, then our satisfaction won’t be tied to our performance or our control. 

The same Savior who promises rest for your soul is able to provide rest in your work. No matter the burdens going on at your job or in your home right now, there is peace in the one who has worked for you, is able to work through you, and can be a steady source of joy to you as you follow the example of God over creation and joyfully reflect on the good work he has done.

Let’s pray.