The Disciple's Rest

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, September 25th. With so many demands and so many schedules to keep, it can seem like it's impossible to ever take a break. Let's continue the series on discipleship with a reminder of the importance of the disciples' rest. That is, it is not only essential that a man labor and work diligently and hard, but likewise that he must rest. And throughout the ministry of Jesus, not only was he working, but he was taking time to rest. And if you'll examine, for example, all of nature as God has made it, he has given us a rhythm in life. For example, the animal kingdom, the plant kingdom, humanity, we all have seasons, and God intended that there be not only labor but rest. He gave the Sabbath day in order that man may rest from his labors.

It is a principle that God has given to us. Now, I want you to see several things here. If you don't get the context of what has happened, you'll miss the impetus, I believe, of what Jesus is trying to say. If you'll move back over to Matthew chapter 10, beginning in verse 5, and I want to read through just certain verses of this for you to get the context now of what those apostles have been doing, the kind of difficulties they've been through in order to get the impact of what He's saying to them when He says, Come apart and rest awhile.

Beginning in verse 5, He says, Now these twelve Jesus sent forth and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now, He's sending His apostles out. He's been teaching them. Now He's going to send them out two by two. He's going to send them out on their own to share what, first of all, they have seen Him do and what they've heard Him teach.

Now, I just want to move through some of these for you to get the context of the emotional involvement of these men. Look, if you will, now in verse 7. He says, As you go, preach, that is, you have resting upon you the awesome responsibility of sharing the truth to the nation of Israel that is in the process of rejecting Him.

Because when this chapter begins, it is the beginning of the period of opposition by the Jews toward Jesus Christ. He says you to preach the kingdom. Preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand to many who will not believe you.

Verse 8. As you're preaching, He says, you are to heal the sick. You are to become involved with the needs of mankind. You're to cleanse those lepers. Then He said to them, you're to raise the dead.

And you can imagine the impact that must have had upon those apostles. You mean we're to raise dead men as you go preaching the kingdom of God, as you go healing men of their diseases, as you go cleansing the leper, you're to raise men from the dead. Verse 9. He said, as you go, you're to provide no gold, no silver, no brass in your purses.

You're to go as you are, trusting that a laborer is worthy of his hire and that you will be provided for as you go. Now, knowing old Peter, I imagine this was a real stumbling block to him. Verse 10. Neither two coats, neither shoes nor staves, for the workman is worthy of his hire. Verse 16. He says, I'm sending you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents, harmless as doves. Verse 17. He says, now, as you go preaching, you are to beware of men. They'll deliver you up to the councils. They'll scourge you in the synagogue.

You can expect opposition, heartache and trial. Verse 19. But when they deliver you up, take no thought on how or what you're going to say, because the Spirit of God is going to say to you in the same hour what you ought to say and to do. Verse 22.

You shall be hated of all men for my sake. You're going to the house of Israel to your own people. When you go to share the gospel with them, they're not going to love you. They're going to hate you and despise you because you're preaching the new kingdom. Verse 23.

When they persecute you in this city, just run, flee to the next city and preach the gospel there. Verse 24. The disciple is not above his master nor the servant above his Lord. Now, with that kind of a ministry before them, these 12 move out to share the gospel to a hostile world. Now, they've been gone several weeks or several months, and the scripture says at the end of that time, they come back in verse 30, if you'll notice now back in Mark 6, and the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus and told him all the things both they had done and what they had taught.

It's interesting in that verse that it is given in the same order of Acts chapter one, verse one, when Luke is writing and says that in his Luke gospel that he told the things that Jesus Christ began both to do first and then to teach. When they came back, the scripture says that they had a report meeting. It was time for reports, and the scripture says they all got together, and they told him they gave testimonies to Christ of the things they had done and what they had taught. Now, I've been in some testimony meetings before, but wouldn't you like to have been in that one when all those 12 apostles sat around and said, let me tell you what happened. And I can imagine old Peter, because he was the most impulsive one, he probably had to give testimony between John and Thomas's and between Andrew and Philip.

He had to give one probably about every other one to talk about all the things that the Lord Jesus Christ had done through him. They had seen people rise from the dead, or he would never have given them the power. They had seen people healed who had never seen nor heard nor spoken in their lives. Their life was completely saturated and enmeshed in the emotional experience of pouring out themselves to others during these weeks and these months. And I imagine that Jesus must have sat there with great admiration, sometimes chuckling a little bit and thinking about the testimonies and how absolutely excited and thrilled they were at just the people who had listened to them, who had repented of their sins, who'd been healed, who'd been raised from the dead, the emotional involvement he saw in these men.

Because you see, up to this point, he had kept them rather close to himself. They had watched him perform many miracles, but now they were cutting their own teeth out there two by two, sharing their faith. I'm sure they had testimonies, not only of God's miraculous power in their lives, but some disappointments. And more than likely, they probably had to say it this time, as they said later on in the 17th chapter of Matthew, when they had tried to heal a young man who was not healed, they said, what happened? And Jesus said to them, this kind of healing, this kind of miracle comes only by fasting and praying. So I'm certain that everything that happened on this particular encounter was not all success, but had its failures and its defeats.

But I believe the spirit and the movement of that report meeting was a glorious testimony of the power of God. Now, when they finished that, I can imagine they said, well, when are we going again? Let's go right back. What about us starting out next week?

If we had that much success this week, let's go again, Lord. And I can imagine He probably said nothing for a few moments, and He said, well, I've been thinking about it. They were probably all geared up for another missionary tour right there in that particular area to share the gospel. And when He was quiet for a moment, the Scripture says that Jesus said, no, not going on another missionary trip right now, but He said, now watch what He said.

Now, it's so beautiful the way it's written in the English. He said to them, come ye yourselves, apart into a desert place and rest awhile. For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure. That is, they didn't even have the opportunity to eat.

And they departed into a desert place by ship privately. Now, you'd think that a group of people who were as fired up as these apostles were, they'd be primed to go. But Jesus in His wisdom said to them, no, not going back again right now, but what we're going to do, He says we're either going to come apart and rest awhile or just come apart at the seams.

That's really what He was saying to them. You either come apart and rest awhile or you'll come apart. Now, I believe here's a principle for God's people. And I believe it is true not only in serving the Lord in your church or wherever you may be, but it is true in your business and your home life, in every facet of your life. And probably one of the greatest reasons for difficulties in the homes today is that mom and dad, husbands and wives, do not use the same principle in their family life that Jesus is talking about here.

Come apart and rest awhile. Now, let's look at these two verses for a moment. Verse 30, He says, when they had gathered themselves together to Him, they told Him all things. I mean, they didn't leave out anything.

They wanted Him to know all the intricate details because they had become so involved in what was going on. It says they told Him all the things they had done and they had taught. Then He said, look in verse 31, then He said, come ye yourselves apart into a desert place. Now, the word desert here does not mean some barren location, but the word in the Greek is eremos, which means a place of quietness, a place where you can be alone, a place away from people, solitude, a place that is private. He was not talking about going out into a hot desert. I don't think that'd be very comforting for men who are already physically exhausted. He said, I want you to come away to a place of quietness, a place that is deserted and lonely and rest awhile.

That is, regain your physical energy, regain your composure. Then He said, for there were many coming and going and that is the people coming and going all the time and wherever they could be found, there were those who were coming to be taught and coming to be healed and coming for needs and we'll notice in verse 33 that when they did get away and they were found, here came the people again, seeking the Lord Jesus Christ and His disciples. When it says leisure, the word does not mean leisure, it means an opportunity.

They were so busy they didn't even have an opportunity to eat their meals in quietness. Verse 32, so they departed into a desert place that is a place of solitude and privacy and quietness by a ship privately. Now, I want us to notice two things here because I believe here is the principle involved. That in the life of every believer, in the life of every disciple, in the life of every single Christian, when we are laboring, whether it be in the business world, whether it be in your home, in the life of the church, in the ministry of the church, whatever it might be, there are times when it is more essential to rest than it is to labor.

It is far more important to rest than it is to work, far more important to be quiet than it is to speak, far more important to do nothing than to do something, far more important to be inactive than to be active. And this is what Jesus was saying to them. One of my favorite passages of scripture, and most of you know that, is Isaiah 40. If you don't know what Isaiah 40 and 31 says, you turn there and look.

Most of you probably know. He says, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not think.

And some of the most precious times to me are the times when I am the busiest, when I suddenly begin to feel that mental fatigue, when I begin to feel that spiritual drain, when my body gets a little weary and my emotions become strained. The one verse I go back to constantly is Isaiah chapter 40, that last verse, because there are times when I feel the weight of that suddenly crowding in upon me, I just get by myself, stretch out on the floor and tell the Lord, now Lord, you said, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like an eagle. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not think. And sometimes five minutes stretched out before God, claiming that one verse, sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes a longer period.

Absolutely amazing at the physical, spiritual, mental, moral energy that God fuses into any human life that is willing to be quiet and listen. When he said, come apart and rest a while, he meant exactly what he said. That is to come apart for a period of time in a deserted place. And my friend, how often do we get involved and we become so busy that we forget that just for a moment, we can hide, just for a moment, we can get by ourselves. It's like getting in the bed and covering up your head.

The whole world is on the outside. And I believe that spiritually you can get along with God, come apart for those seconds, for those minutes, brief periods of time, when maybe on your job you just sort of slip aside somewhere and go where nobody can see you or maybe everybody's out of the office, close the door, get out on your knees or just fold your hands across the desk, open the water. There's something about reading that passage.

Read that passage of Scripture and just tell the Lord. Now, Lord, I'm tired. I'm weary. Emotionally I'm drained. But by faith you said, if I wait upon you, and that's what I'm doing, I'm just looking to you.

My friend, sometimes five minutes is all that you need to be renewed. He said, come apart and rest a while lest you come apart at the seams. Now, the principle is not just coming apart. It's not just coming apart from something. It is coming apart from these things and also coming apart to something.

That's the second point. Coming apart from bodily weariness and coming apart from emotional strain and coming apart from this mental fatigue and from this spiritual drain, but also coming apart to something. Now, coming apart to what? They came apart to a fresh new interpretation of their experiences. One of the reasons God wants us to get us apart from what we've been doing is in order to interpret to us what He's been in the process of doing during this time of labor or activity.

So what does He do? He pulls us apart from that in order to take us to this in order to interpret for us that facet or those facets of our life whereby we understand what God is doing within our human life. You see, the person who keeps on activity after activity after activity with no interpretation of what God is doing is headed for trouble. You're headed for spiritual defeat.

You're headed for bodily defeat, emotional defeat. It is the quietness. It is the slipping away. It is the hiding away with God, allowing Him to take the time to interpret in your life.

I am confident that one thing that Jesus spent much time doing in these periods of rest was interpreting for them what was happening to them and why these experiences were taking place, helping them to understand why people were responding as they were responding. So first of all, coming apart to an interpretation of their experience. Secondly, coming apart for instruction for future growth, coming apart for instruction for future growth. It is one thing to have my past and my experiences interpreted.

It is something else to be instructed for future growth. So He brought them apart from these things, first of all, to interpret what has been happening, and second, to instruct them in the things that were going to come to pass and how to deal with these one by one. The third thing He called them to was inspiration for future service. He says, He said, come apart and rest a while.

Rest a while from your past, but also what? Come apart to inspiration for future service. Can you tell me anything any more inspiring, any more preparing that would prepare a man any more sufficiently than just to be quiet and be alone in a solitude, in a solitary place, in a deserted place where no one knew where you were and there you sat at the feet of Jesus and just simply listened to Him talk, to be in His presence and to be quiet, and to let Him share the deep secrets of the kingdom of God and allow Him to speak to your heart about the innermost being of Himself and to share with Him the secrets of His own life. And some things He said to them, He never said to others. Some things He shared with those apostles, He never shared with anyone else.

He brought them apart in order to instruct them and then to inspire them for future service by being in His presence and sharing His very life with them. Now listen, if you're not a Christian, I don't have to tell you of the fatigue in your life, the strain, the drain, the weariness in your life. And my friend, running from God is a weariness for which there is nothing to be compared. Weary, moving away from God, weary, running from God. And I want to challenge you this morning, my friend, to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and tell Him today you're tired. Listen, most people I know who are lost, they're tired. You know what they're tired of? They're tired of fighting God, tired of resisting God, tired of carrying guilt, tired of carrying the weight of emotional strain in their life.

They're just weary and tired. Now that's what He meant when He said, come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. That is, take My rules and My laws. Take My yoke upon you.

Learn of Me. And when you learn of Me and get in balance with Me and in rhythm with My will, He says, I'll give you peace in your heart. And I wonder, my friend this morning, if you're carrying something in your life you should not carry. What about your home, Christian? Have you got your home in balance? What about in your work? You got that work in balance? And what about your personal life? Is your life balanced so that in just a brief moment when He says, come apart for a while, that you are wise enough to take those small, brief, five-second, five-minute snatches of vacation and say, Lord, here am I. Rejoice Me, rest Me, fill Me, energize Me, and send Me again. Thank you for listening to The Disciples Rest. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.