Isaiah 56 - Part 2
Posted by Calvary Chapel Fremont at 4/1/2010 8:57 PM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Pastor Tim Brown Calvary Chapel Fremont Isaiah
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Pastor Tim Brown Calvary Chapel Fremont Isaiah
Pastor Tim Brown, Calvary Chapel Fremont, Wednesday March 31, 2010
Isaiah 56
An unrested body becomes weary/unrested mind – blurry. There are serious consequences to not getting enough rest.
A person who loses one night’s sleep will generally be irritable and clumsy during the next day and will either become tired easily or speed up because of adrenalin. After missing two night’s sleep, a person will have problems concentrating and will begin to make mistakes on normal tasks. Three missed nights and a person will start to hallucinate/lose grasp of reality. Someone who gets just a few hours of sleep each night incurs a large “sleep debt”/ begins to experience many of the same problems over time. www.sleepdex.org/deficit.htm
Even as your body needs rest, so your spirit. I56:3 describes two categories of people who are not resting in the Lord. When you don’t rest in the Lord - serious consequences.
3 The Foreigner - his fear is separation - that the Lord will send him away. Ethnically/culturally/linguistically – not a Jew. He sees this as too great a deficit to overcome. “I’m different/don’t fit in. I’ll be rejected. I’m a misfit/outsider.” His anxiety is that what he is in the flesh will keep him from becoming what he wants to be in the Spirit. In the body of Christ we are all foreigners – no one was born being born again. No one naturally belongs here – we’re all here by invitation. apply
3 The Eunuch - castrated man - anxiety: I have no future. No life can come from me. His fear is that he has lost more than can be regained – so misshapen/so much life sucked out of him that is hopeless to believe a fruitful life could be his. apply
f/e – individuals w/ deep wounds – those who feel they don’t fit in/ never make positive contribution. What can bring healing/restore confidence/promote fulfilled and fruitful life? There is a simple way…
4-8 Conditions for fulfillment/fruitfulness
Both eunuch/foreigner are called to keep the sabbaths of the Lord.
* Sabbath means rest - f/e is to watch over/have great care for/ protect the rest that God has given.
* Weekly/those linked w/ annual festivals: New Year-Day of Atonement-Passover-Pentecost-Booths/7th year/Jubilee
o Fulfillment/fruitfulness begins w/ keeping in step w/ God
o Observe these times of rest – order your life around these times. There was a rhythm 2b observed. Get in step w/ God’s rhythm of time – dance w/ the Lord.
Even as the foreigner/eunuch were called to celebrate the sabbaths of the Lord in order to experience fulfillment/fruitfulness – so the follower of Jesus is called to observe various sabbaths for the soul. Even as the Jew had many sabbath days, so the follower of Jesus. There is a simple pathway to fulfillment/fruitfulness.
The rest of faith
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Mt. 11:28
Context of Mt. 11 – Jesus is speaking to those who had rejected the prophets (JTB had a demon and Jesus is a glutton) and hardened their hearts against Him in the light of overwhelming evidence. They had seen His power/miraculous touch on people’s lives/bodies. They were doing intellectual back flips to avoid the obvious conclusion in order to justify their rejection of Jesus. Always resisting truth tires a person out. E.g., Saul/Damascus Rd. – it is hard 4u2 kick against the goads. Saul heard the invitation of Jesus on the road to Damascus. He came to Jesus and was given rest.
The unbelieving can no more rest than someone who just had 50 cups of coffee can sleep. Jesus calls you n2 a place of ceasing from your labor. Labor to do what? Resist truth/justify self/create own morality. Unbelief will tire you out and unbelief will keep you out of God’s rest.
And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name. Revelation 14:11
You rest when something is done. Jesus: “It is finished,” We rest on the finished work of Christ. What a horrific picture of eternity w/ Christ – those who are haunted by their incompleteness have no rest day/night. Smoke of their torment = unanswered prayer?
The rest of following
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, 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. Matthew 11:28-29
Come to Me – I will give you rest/Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me – you will find rest. What is the difference between the rest Christ gives and the rest you find? A yoke connected the oxen to the person who was guiding it and directing its strength. The oxen learned the will of the master through his use of the reins. The reins are the Word of God. There is rest in following the leading of the Lord. Jesus: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me.” When I walk in obedience, it is His power that strengthens me. I am not wiped out in obedience, I am energized.
When ur resting, your muscles are relaxed. When ur resisting, your muscles are tensed. How can you rest when ur resisting? To say ‘No’ to Jesus is to resist and not 2b@ rest. When you resist, ur no longer following. Following means ur not resisting, but r@ rest, caught up in the flow of the Spirit. E.g., feeding 5,000 – whose power was it? Disciples didn’t have to perform tricks to make the lunch appear or exert emotional energy to make it happen.
Not only will unbelief tire you out, disobedience will too. Unbelief keeps you from the rest of faith and disobedience keeps you from the rest of following. There’s another aspect to this. There are those who will follow, but follow in their own terms.
Martha/Mary – one sat and one served. Unbelief/disobedience will weary you and unnecessary/unbidden service will tire you out. What is unnecessary/unbidden service? That which you do that is meant to impress the Lord w/ who ur (Mt. 7). That which you do that is meant to impress others w/ who ur. This is unnecessary service because it is you serving you. You’re not serving the Lord – He is not the end, but a means to an end. This will exhaust you after a while. Mary was finding rest at the feet of Jesus and Martha, w/ her restless spirit, was wearing herself out. Instead of hearing, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” Martha may have heard, “What was that all about?”
The rest of fellowship
Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord, I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went on to Macedonia. 2 Corinthians 2:12-13
Yes, brother, let me benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ. Ph. 1:20
You have the privilege of bringing the encouragement of Christ to someone else and receiving help of Christ from someone else.
…if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7
Power/peace of God is experienced as we are connected to one another. There is a flow of God’s love/blood/care.
Even as there are sabbaths 2b observed, there are different levels of rest that r2b experienced by the believer.
* The rest that comes through faith in Christ
* The rest that comes through following Christ
* The rest that comes through the fellowship of the body of Christ
5/7 Fulfillment/fruitfulness of Eunuch/foreigner
The fears/worries of the eunuch/foreigner are more than matched by the promises of God. As you experience the rests of Christ, you will experience fulfillment/fruitfulness.
8 god’s grace is for all
This is the heart of God – His house a place of access to Him for all the peoples – foreigners/eunuchs/etc.
o Persians, Babylonians, Canaanites, Egyptians, Greeks – none of these ever thought of stopping work one day in seven so as to give ordinary people … a complete day of rest. Knight in Motyer
o Nothing could be a clearer outward demonstration of leaving the ‘world’ and joining the Lord’s people than the adoption of an institution which necessitated the wholesale reorganization of life around the requirements and worship of Israel’s God. Motyer
* Choose what pleases the Lord – live in love
o Know and desire the will of God in your free will
Download | Duration: 00:44:39
Isaiah 56
An unrested body becomes weary/unrested mind – blurry. There are serious consequences to not getting enough rest.
A person who loses one night’s sleep will generally be irritable and clumsy during the next day and will either become tired easily or speed up because of adrenalin. After missing two night’s sleep, a person will have problems concentrating and will begin to make mistakes on normal tasks. Three missed nights and a person will start to hallucinate/lose grasp of reality. Someone who gets just a few hours of sleep each night incurs a large “sleep debt”/ begins to experience many of the same problems over time. www.sleepdex.org/deficit.htm
Even as your body needs rest, so your spirit. I56:3 describes two categories of people who are not resting in the Lord. When you don’t rest in the Lord - serious consequences.
3 The Foreigner - his fear is separation - that the Lord will send him away. Ethnically/culturally/linguistically – not a Jew. He sees this as too great a deficit to overcome. “I’m different/don’t fit in. I’ll be rejected. I’m a misfit/outsider.” His anxiety is that what he is in the flesh will keep him from becoming what he wants to be in the Spirit. In the body of Christ we are all foreigners – no one was born being born again. No one naturally belongs here – we’re all here by invitation. apply
3 The Eunuch - castrated man - anxiety: I have no future. No life can come from me. His fear is that he has lost more than can be regained – so misshapen/so much life sucked out of him that is hopeless to believe a fruitful life could be his. apply
f/e – individuals w/ deep wounds – those who feel they don’t fit in/ never make positive contribution. What can bring healing/restore confidence/promote fulfilled and fruitful life? There is a simple way…
4-8 Conditions for fulfillment/fruitfulness
Both eunuch/foreigner are called to keep the sabbaths of the Lord.
* Sabbath means rest - f/e is to watch over/have great care for/ protect the rest that God has given.
* Weekly/those linked w/ annual festivals: New Year-Day of Atonement-Passover-Pentecost-Booths/7th year/Jubilee
o Fulfillment/fruitfulness begins w/ keeping in step w/ God
o Observe these times of rest – order your life around these times. There was a rhythm 2b observed. Get in step w/ God’s rhythm of time – dance w/ the Lord.
Even as the foreigner/eunuch were called to celebrate the sabbaths of the Lord in order to experience fulfillment/fruitfulness – so the follower of Jesus is called to observe various sabbaths for the soul. Even as the Jew had many sabbath days, so the follower of Jesus. There is a simple pathway to fulfillment/fruitfulness.
The rest of faith
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Mt. 11:28
Context of Mt. 11 – Jesus is speaking to those who had rejected the prophets (JTB had a demon and Jesus is a glutton) and hardened their hearts against Him in the light of overwhelming evidence. They had seen His power/miraculous touch on people’s lives/bodies. They were doing intellectual back flips to avoid the obvious conclusion in order to justify their rejection of Jesus. Always resisting truth tires a person out. E.g., Saul/Damascus Rd. – it is hard 4u2 kick against the goads. Saul heard the invitation of Jesus on the road to Damascus. He came to Jesus and was given rest.
The unbelieving can no more rest than someone who just had 50 cups of coffee can sleep. Jesus calls you n2 a place of ceasing from your labor. Labor to do what? Resist truth/justify self/create own morality. Unbelief will tire you out and unbelief will keep you out of God’s rest.
And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name. Revelation 14:11
You rest when something is done. Jesus: “It is finished,” We rest on the finished work of Christ. What a horrific picture of eternity w/ Christ – those who are haunted by their incompleteness have no rest day/night. Smoke of their torment = unanswered prayer?
The rest of following
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, 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. Matthew 11:28-29
Come to Me – I will give you rest/Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me – you will find rest. What is the difference between the rest Christ gives and the rest you find? A yoke connected the oxen to the person who was guiding it and directing its strength. The oxen learned the will of the master through his use of the reins. The reins are the Word of God. There is rest in following the leading of the Lord. Jesus: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me.” When I walk in obedience, it is His power that strengthens me. I am not wiped out in obedience, I am energized.
When ur resting, your muscles are relaxed. When ur resisting, your muscles are tensed. How can you rest when ur resisting? To say ‘No’ to Jesus is to resist and not 2b@ rest. When you resist, ur no longer following. Following means ur not resisting, but r@ rest, caught up in the flow of the Spirit. E.g., feeding 5,000 – whose power was it? Disciples didn’t have to perform tricks to make the lunch appear or exert emotional energy to make it happen.
Not only will unbelief tire you out, disobedience will too. Unbelief keeps you from the rest of faith and disobedience keeps you from the rest of following. There’s another aspect to this. There are those who will follow, but follow in their own terms.
Martha/Mary – one sat and one served. Unbelief/disobedience will weary you and unnecessary/unbidden service will tire you out. What is unnecessary/unbidden service? That which you do that is meant to impress the Lord w/ who ur (Mt. 7). That which you do that is meant to impress others w/ who ur. This is unnecessary service because it is you serving you. You’re not serving the Lord – He is not the end, but a means to an end. This will exhaust you after a while. Mary was finding rest at the feet of Jesus and Martha, w/ her restless spirit, was wearing herself out. Instead of hearing, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” Martha may have heard, “What was that all about?”
The rest of fellowship
Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord, I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went on to Macedonia. 2 Corinthians 2:12-13
Yes, brother, let me benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ. Ph. 1:20
You have the privilege of bringing the encouragement of Christ to someone else and receiving help of Christ from someone else.
…if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7
Power/peace of God is experienced as we are connected to one another. There is a flow of God’s love/blood/care.
Even as there are sabbaths 2b observed, there are different levels of rest that r2b experienced by the believer.
* The rest that comes through faith in Christ
* The rest that comes through following Christ
* The rest that comes through the fellowship of the body of Christ
5/7 Fulfillment/fruitfulness of Eunuch/foreigner
The fears/worries of the eunuch/foreigner are more than matched by the promises of God. As you experience the rests of Christ, you will experience fulfillment/fruitfulness.
8 god’s grace is for all
This is the heart of God – His house a place of access to Him for all the peoples – foreigners/eunuchs/etc.
o Persians, Babylonians, Canaanites, Egyptians, Greeks – none of these ever thought of stopping work one day in seven so as to give ordinary people … a complete day of rest. Knight in Motyer
o Nothing could be a clearer outward demonstration of leaving the ‘world’ and joining the Lord’s people than the adoption of an institution which necessitated the wholesale reorganization of life around the requirements and worship of Israel’s God. Motyer
* Choose what pleases the Lord – live in love
o Know and desire the will of God in your free will
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