Mark 6:31

Rest in Christ

Good evening, everyone. Our text tonight is Mark 6, verse 31. And the text says,

and he said to them, come away by yourself to a desolated place and rest a while. For many were coming and going and they have no leisure even to eat.

As I was Putting this devotion all together, God brought great conviction to myself. I cannot stand in here without feeling the hypocrisy that I have been carrying in my life because so many times I have failed to rest in Christ. And even standing up here, I feel like I'm not worthy to be here. But with that being said, I'm going to continue. Lord, help me. So as I was thinking about this devotional, I was wrestling with the fact that In the context of this verse, there is no time to rest, even before and even after. As we see in verse 7, Jesus calls the twelve, and he began to send them out for a mission trip. So he sent them to work. And then in verse 12 and 13, we can see the busyness that they have through through that ministry. They say they were healing many. So we can see that the fame of Jesus also was growing up a lot. And he was attending so many multitudes. So in verse 30, we can see that the disciples, they just came back from a successful mission trip. And I believe they were tired because they were telling They were giving the results of Jesus what they were doing. So I believe they were tired from being on a mission trip. Now we can see our brothers when they go to a mission trip, they can live today from here and tomorrow they can be in Argentina, in Brazil. But back then, they have to walk. They have to probably ride in a donkey. And I can tell you by the fact that it's not an easy task. It's going to make you tired. So I was wrestling because I was thinking about how in the world I can find rest in this verse. But in the middle of that, we can also see that after all these chaotic situations, Jesus knew what his disciples need. They needed to rest. As we know, Jesus always know what is good for his people. So he said,

come away by yourselves to a desolated place and rest a while.

So he command his disciples to go away and rest. But even when they were trying to go away, In verse 33, we can see that they were going to the place that Jesus has commanded to them for go. And people saw him and they even got there before they even get there. So when they got there, what Jesus did, he saw the need and he started attending all those needs. And I don't even know what was going on in the head of the disciples. But it can be like, you command us to go and rest, and now what you're doing? You're already working again. So just think about it. They were ready to rest. And what Jesus does? He takes them even a step further. He say to them, feed him. So he didn't even attend the spiritual needs. He also attended the physical needs. Just imagine how exhausted it can be to feed 5,000 people. So if we are looking at the context, we will be like, there is no time to rest, right? So what do we do? What do we do when we are tired and seems like there is no time to rest? As we hear tonight, people asking for praying because their life all of a sudden became busy. They became anxious. We are asking for praying. So what do we do? With all this in mind, I want to answer three questions. When do we need rest? When do we need rest? If we look at the text, it looks like there is no time to rest, right? And even worse, so many times we use, or at least I have used this text, to excuse ourselves for working too much. We make a lot of excuses for not resting. And as Christians, we even have the ability to over-spiritualize that what we are doing is under the banner of faithfulness and service to God. God has built us in a way that we need to rest. But sometimes it's very easy to fool ourselves into thinking that exhaustion is normal. There is the price that we have to pay for living in 2025, where everything is so expensive, where people is competing to each other and to see who's got the bigger house, the nicest car, the better family, the nicest clothing. And sooner than later, so many times we fall in the fatigue. And through this series what we have seen is that in God's plan is in his heart for us to rest. God builds cycles of resting to our physiology that he made us so that every single day we have to stop what we are doing in order to sleep. He built that into us. He even modeled rest by himself after creation. And after that, he commanded his people to take one day a week to rest. God has not been silent that we have to rest. We just have been too busy to listen. And sometimes we don't We take things for granted and we don't see the importance of pulling away and rest. Rest is an important part of how God has designed us and made us. Because at the end of the day, what you can control? You have to rest and trust in the sovereignty of God. And this will take us to our question number two. When can rest be interrupted? So I don't know what is your situation right now. But for example, you probably are working multiple jobs because in this season of your life, you have to keep food on your table or a roof over your head. Or maybe you are being forced for an employer to work extensive over time, months and months. Or maybe you are one of those new parents who have been up with their babies through many nights, as Rachel, as Sam. Or maybe you are caring for a dying loved one for a prolonged period of time. And I'm not saying that you have to leave all these things behind. And I don't know, you may be on a position where your ministry is flourishing. You are too busy preaching the Word of God. And I'm not saying you have to take these things away. But you have to find a time to rest. You have to pull away of that situation. There is many situations in a very general sense, in which is not the fact that we are exception to the norm. And in here, we can see that in God's sovereignty, sometimes arrest is interrupted. And we can see it with the apostle. They were going to a desolated place, and they got interrupted. They didn't complain. They rest in Christ. They saw the Master. So this takes us to our third question. What is the type of rest that cannot be interrupted? One of the greatest examples that we have in this church is the heilers. They were in Sweden. They were working. Their ministry was flourishing for what we hear and what we saw. But all of a sudden, in God's mercy, she said, you have to pull away. And what do they did? They came, they are resting, but they are resting in God. They are resting in Christ. We can see how many times they have asked for prayer to find the Lord's will to continue its ministry. They didn't complain. They didn't say, we have to be here because our ministry is flourishing. They trust in the sovereignty of God. Another even greater example, it was Jesus. Jesus was teaching his disciples in Mark 6.31 to do what he was already doing in Mark 1.35. He was pulling away, going to a desolated place, and prayed to his Father, to our Father, where we are resting. You're resting on your bank account, you're resting on your ministry, you're resting in your kids, or you're resting in God. We have to pull away from our situation and go to that desolated place and rest, and rest in Christ. Because as I say, at the end of the day, you don't even know if you're going to live tomorrow. So come and rest on the promises of God that one day we will be with him and there will be no more pain and no more sorrow. We can see that Jesus was feeling the death of John the Baptist, his cousin. He was overloaded with work and then Sorrow came to his life. And what did he do? He rested on his father. That's why we get so many times so anxious. And I'm the biggest guilty in here. Because sometimes I feel like there is no rest for me. Sometimes I feel like it's one thing after another. And these devotional have given me the conviction that I haven't been resting enough in our Heavenly Father. And even when we try to rest, we don't rest because we are doing everything that we cannot do when we are working. When we have free time, We use that time for do our shopping, our cleaning, our house projects, and everything else that we cannot do before. And not that those things are bad, but there is just no rest on those. So we can see that physical rest can be interrupted, but not the spiritual rest. we need to pull away and come to rest in our Heavenly Father. He have already have done everything for us, even while we were his enemies. And if you are looking for a title for this devotional, it's this. Physical rest is important, but not an ultimatum. To rest properly, we must trust God's sovereignty as the High Lord did it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come and confess that we have failed to rest in you. We have failed to trust you. We have failed to trust in your promises. We believe in you, but so many times we don't believe in your promises. And we try to control every aspect of our lives. And we don't trust in your sovereignty. Help us, Father, and give us the desire to come and rest in you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.