Scripture referenced 14 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Matthew 11 opening encouragement: come to me all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, I will give you rest
1 When Jesus had finished directing his twelve disciples, he departed from there to teach and preach in their cities.
2 Now when John heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples
3 and said to him, “Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?”
4 Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see:
5 the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.
6 Blessed is he who finds no occasion for stumbling in me.”
7 As these went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
8 But what did you go out to see? A man in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.
9 But why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet.
10 For this is he, of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’
11 Most certainly I tell you, among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptizer; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.
12 From the days of John the Baptizer until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
14 If you are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, who is to come.
15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
16 “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces, who call to their companions
17 and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you didn’t dance. We mourned for you, and you didn’t lament.’
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”
20 Then he began to denounce the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done, because they didn’t repent.
21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
22 But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
23 You, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, you will go down to Hades. For if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in you, it would have remained until today.
24 But I tell you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, on the day of judgment, than for you.”
25 At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants.
26 Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in your sight.
27 All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son desires to reveal him.
28 “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 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.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
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Keep this verse
Luke 18:10-14
parable of the Pharisee and tax collector, the one who humbles himself will be exalted
10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: ‘God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’
13 But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
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Hebrews 10:19-21
confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus through the new and living way
19 Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
20 by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
21 and having a great priest over God’s house,
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Hebrews 4
let us fear, let us be diligent to enter the rest, so that no one falls through disobedience
1 Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest.
2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith by those who heard.
3 For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest”; although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For he has said this somewhere about the seventh day, “God rested on the seventh day from all his works”;
5 and in this place again, “They will not enter into my rest.”
6 Seeing therefore it remains that some should enter into it, and they to whom the good news was preached before failed to enter in because of disobedience,
7 he again defines a certain day, today, saying through David so long a time afterward (just as has been said), “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day.
9 There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
10 For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his.
11 Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.
12 For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
13 There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.
14 Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold tightly to our confession.
15 For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.
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Hebrews 4:14-16
since we have a great high priest, let us hold fast our confession and draw near with confidence to the throne of grace
14 Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold tightly to our confession.
15 For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.
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Hebrews 6:1
let us press on to maturity, leaving elementary things about Christ
1 Therefore leaving the teaching of the first principles of Christ, let us press on to perfection—not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith toward God,
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Hebrews 10:22
let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of the faith, hearts sprinkled clean
22 let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water,
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Hebrews 10:23
let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful
23 let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful.
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Hebrews 10:24
let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds
24 Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works,
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Hebrews 10:25
not forsaking our assembling together, encouraging one another as you see the day approaching
25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as you see the Day approaching.
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Acts 15:36-39
Paul and Barnabas sharp disagreement over taking Mark, used to illustrate the word for provocation
36 After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s return now and visit our brothers in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, to see how they are doing.”
37 Barnabas planned to take John, who was called Mark, with them also.
38 But Paul didn’t think that it was a good idea to take with them someone who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia, and didn’t go with them to do the work.
39 Then the contention grew so sharp that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him, and sailed away to Cyprus,
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Jeremiah 31
referenced as the prophecy of the new covenant that Jesus inaugurated at the Last Supper
1 “At that time,” says Yahweh, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”
2 Yahweh says, “The people who survive the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.”
3 Yahweh appeared of old to me, saying, “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.
4 I will build you again, and you will be built, O virgin of Israel. You will again be adorned with your tambourines, and will go out in the dances of those who make merry.
5 Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. The planters will plant, and will enjoy its fruit.
6 For there will be a day that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim cry, ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion to Yahweh our God.’”
7 For Yahweh says, “Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations. Publish, praise, and say, ‘Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel!’
8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, along with the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together. They will return as a great company.
9 They will come with weeping. I will lead them with petitions. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they won’t stumble; for I am a father to Israel. Ephraim is my firstborn.
10 “Hear Yahweh’s word, you nations, and declare it in the distant islands. Say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.’
11 For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.
12 They will come and sing in the height of Zion, and will flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, to the new wine, to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd. Their soul will be as a watered garden. They will not sorrow any more at all.
13 Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance; the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
14 I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people will be satisfied with my goodness,” says Yahweh.
15 Yahweh says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”
16 Yahweh says: “Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work will be rewarded,” says Yahweh. “They will come again from the land of the enemy.
17 There is hope for your latter end,” says Yahweh. “Your children will come again to their own territory.
18 “I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf. Turn me, and I will be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.
19 Surely after that I was turned. I repented. After that I was instructed. I struck my thigh. I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
20 Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I still earnestly remember him. therefore my heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy on him,” says Yahweh.
21 “Set up road signs. Make guideposts. Set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went. Turn again, virgin of Israel. Turn again to these your cities.
22 How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a woman will encompass a man.”
23 Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Yet again they will use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I reverse their captivity: ‘Yahweh bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.’
24 Judah and all its cities will dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks.
25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”
26 On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.
27 “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of animal.
28 It will happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant,” says Yahweh.
29 “In those days they will say no more, “‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 But everyone will die for his own iniquity. Every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.
31 “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant of mine they broke, although I was a husband to them,” says Yahweh.
33 “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 They will no longer each teach his neighbor, and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh;’ for they will all know me, from their least to their greatest,” says Yahweh: “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
35 Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; Yahweh of Armies is his name, says:
36 “If these ordinances depart from before me,” says Yahweh, “then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before me forever.”
37 Yahweh says: “If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they…
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Romans 12:1
closing benediction: offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your true and proper worship
1 Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message centered on humility before God and confidence at the table he has set for us. The pastor worked from the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector into Hebrews 10, tying the two together through the thread of a man who knows he has no standing before God and yet is justified by grace. The service closed with communion as a shared declaration of that grace.
What was said
the pastor came back to a passage from Luke 18 that had been following him for weeks: the Pharisee and the tax collector praying at the temple. The Pharisee stood confident in his own record, while the tax collector would not even lift his eyes, only asking God to be merciful to him, the sinner. Jesus said it was that man who went home justified. The point that kept pressing on the pastor was simple: none of us deserve what God has given. It would not be grace if it were deserved.
Before moving to Hebrews, he told a story from a trip to Morocco in what he believed was around 2009. He and two friends were carrying letters from a former resident named Daniel for people in a remote village in the High Atlas Mountains. One of those letters was addressed to their taxi driver, Abdele, a man they had not chosen and had no reason to expect. On the return trip that first year, Abdele challenged them on Islam and Christianity through a long breakfast argument, and the exchange ended with all four men standing hip to hip, praying together that God would reveal the truth to them, whatever that cost them. When the group returned the following year, Abdele had been deliberately arranged as their driver again, because he had made, as the pastor put it, an extreme change of life.
That story stood as the "therefore" before Hebrews 10:19-25. The pastor explained that Hebrews had been building the case that Jesus is better than the angels, better than Moses, better than the old priesthood, and better than the old covenant. Now the writer draws the conclusion: because Jesus is the great high priest who opened the way through his own body, there is real confidence to enter the holy place. The sacrifice that the tax collector knew in his bones was not sufficient, those animals, has been replaced by one that is.
From there the passage offers three "let us" commands, and the pastor took each one in turn. The first is to draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. He applied this directly to the coming communion, noting that holding a grudge against someone is a reason people stay away from the table, and calling that a bad trade. Unforgiveness, he said, is a poison pill that kills the one who holds it, not the person they are angry with.
The second is to hold fast the confession of hope without wavering, because the one who promised is faithful. The third is to consider how to stir one another up toward love and good works. The pastor noted that the Greek word used there also appears in Acts 15, where it describes the sharp dispute between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark. The same word can mean stimulation, provocation, or even irritation. The point in Hebrews, he said, is not to go start something on your own when you are stirred up, but to direct that energy into pushing one another toward love and action.
He closed by placing the assembling-together verse in its proper order in the passage. It is not the main point, he said, but rather the means behind that third exhortation. You cannot stir one another up toward love and good works if you are not together. The service then moved into communion, with the pastor reading the words of institution and praying over the bread and cup, describing the table as open to anyone who has trusted in Jesus regardless of background or denomination.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector came up early in the sermon. The tax collector asked for mercy while the Pharisee listed his credentials. Where do you find yourself more naturally landing when you come to God, and what does that reveal about how you see yourself before Him?
- The pastor described the encounter with Abdele the taxi driver, who prayed that God would reveal the truth and committed to following it no matter the cost. Have you ever made that kind of open-handed commitment to God, and what did it cost you or change in you?
and 3 more questions in the guide
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