Focus: The Offer Still Stands!

Text: Mt.11:28

"Come unto me."

Jesus Christ says to the weary and worn out by legalism, "Come to me." He says to the tired and torn in bits by religious routines, "Come to me." He says to those who are laden with iniquity, "Come to me." He says to those who are trying to achieve their salvation by self-effort, "Come to me."

This is an incentivized invitation to everyone who is already tired of work while the work remains undone. There is so much work to be done, but no more power to getting it done. Exhausted and sapped of all vitality, this laborer is now at the brink of total collapse. The incentive following this invitation is: "And I will give you rest." In Revelation 14:13, a voice tells John of those who died in the Lord resting from their labors and their works following them.

Those who heed the invitation gain the rest that He gives. Christ is the giver of real rest. To get this rest requires that you leave where you, and come to where He is. You are coming not really to a place, but to a person - the person of Christ, who is the rest-giver. Just imagine laboring round the clock for days, weeks, months and years, and yet you have not a moment to rest yourself or a time to restfully regain your energy!

Through the rest that Christ gives us, we are refreshed and revitalized. He says, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (Jh.10:10). Christianity is a religion of life and restfulness. Christ brings us into the sabbath rest of God. Our God labored for six days and rested on the seventh day. From the first day to the sixth, we read of "morning and evening," but when it came to the seventh day, there is no record of "morning and evening." God's seventh day is endless; it speaks of eternal rest. Also, unlike the rest of the days, we are interestingly informed that God "blessed" the seventh day and "sanctified" it. God set apart the seventh. It is not like the other days, and the six days of work are not complete without it.

Man was the last thing that God made on the sixth day. In other words, with the creation of man God ended His work and entered into His rest. That means that man entered into the rest of God without lifting a finger to do a thing in the name of work. Man rested before he ever did even the simplest of tasks. Man's first experience was rest, not activity. He fed his eyes with the God's finished work of creation. He looked around and observed all that God had done. He explored and enjoyed the divine stamp and signature of perfect precision in creation. He took note of things as he beheld the wonders of God, and as he wondered at God, he bowed in worship to Him. 

By looking at what God has done, we are inspired and propelled to imitate Him. We become co-creators with God. We follow in His steps and deputize for Him.

I make bold to say that the invitation to come still stands and the incentive to rest still remains. Stop working yourself to death in the name of religion. Learn to rest on Christ's finished work of redemption. We will do our work well by looking at what He has done for us. We are saved by looking; we are rewarded by serving. By looking we live, and by laboring we imitate Him. The offer still stands!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter