Sermons
A Respite From Religious Labors
Matthew 11:28-30
INTRODUCTION
The scene before Jesus on the dusty streets of Jerusalem. People carrying loads, food, water, merchandise. It gives rise to insight about their spiritual state. They were religious, but they were burdened. They were tired. In Luke's Gospel, chapter 11 verse 46, Jesus said, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.”
Looking at the church today the scene has changed, but the effect is the same. He sees people burdened with financial obligations, time crunches, and the search for significance and meaning. And He sees this in the church.
In contrast to that religious state, Jesus gives an invitation to us, and a promises for us, if we will accept His invitation.
INVITATION: “Come to me,”
His invitation was not merely to go to Temple, or to go to Church. His invitation was not to run around the country trying to find the latest and greatest preacher or revival. His invitation is simply to come to Him. When the Samaritan woman asked which mountain to worship at Jesus said, “The hour is coming and now is, when true worshippers will not worry about trying to find the right mountain, the right method, the right style, or the right man, but true worshippers will simply come to God and worship Him in Spirit and in truth.” All you have to do is come to Jesus.
WHO IS INVITED: “all you who are weary and burdened,”
It is on open invitation to everyone and anyone who is tired of trying harder, working harder, doing more, carrying more, and yet feeling less joy, less peace, and less satisfied. If you're weary from the labors of life, if you're weary from responsibilities at work, at home, and in the church, if you're weary from trying to sort out all the religious claims and counter claims, if you're burdened down with life, Jesus invites you, it's your name on the invitation, He is singling you out to come to Him. You can go to church and still not get to Jesus.
We need to come like the woman with the issue of blood who had spent all her money on physicians and yet grew worse. One day she heard about a man named Jesus and she said to herself, “If I can just get to Him, I know that I'll get the healing that I need.” So even though she was weak and weary, even though there was a crowd of people all around Jesus, she made up her mind to touch Him.
That's the way we need to come to worship services. All you who are weary and burdened, you need to get up in the morning and say, “I'm going to get to Jesus. I'm not going to be stopped by the complaining in the parking lot, I've come to get to Jesus. I'm not going to get sidetracked by the unkind word in the foyer; I'm going to get to Jesus. I'm not going to get distracted by the person on the pew next to me; I'm going to get to Jesus. I'm not going to let the mix of the sound system stop me; I'm going to get to Jesus. I'm not going to let a misspelled word on the overhead stop me, I'm not going to let something the preacher says stop me, I'm going to get to Jesus and I'm going to touch Him until virtue flows and my life is changed!
THE PROMISE: “and I will give you rest.”
Here is the promise for all who come to Jesus, “I will give you rest.” That word rest literally means, “to cause to cease.” In its expanded form it means “to cause to rest, to refresh, to revive.”
Some of you need to stop so that Jesus in His mercy can refresh you and revive you. But before that revival can take place in your heart, you've got to come to Him and rest. Martha, learn something from Mary, just sit at His feet and rest in His presence.
Remember, however, that Jesus spoke these words in Aramaic and the word He most likely used was the Hebrew word “Shabbat.” He said, “Come to me and I will give you Shabbat.” It is the root word for Sabbath. Note the irony, the people were wearing themselves out trying to keep the Sabbath. According to the Pharisees there were 613 commandments for the people to try to keep up with. And on the Sabbath, the day of rest, they were laboring to keep from working. The religious elite had added man made laws to the Law of God; in fact, they added law upon law, what you could do and what you could not do on the Sabbath. According to the man made laws it was wrong to heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus said, “Man wasn't made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man.”
Jesus invites all the weary, all the heavy laden, to enjoy a Shabbat, a rest in Him that refreshes the soul and revives the spirit. That what worship on the Lord' Day should do for us. Yet I meet so many people who come vexed and leave vexed all because they came to church, maybe even to the altar, but they never made it to the feet of Jesus.
INVITATION: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,”
In other words, “Take off the yoke of tradition and man made religion. Get out from under the spirit of religion and enter into a relationship with Jesus. This is an invitation to discipleship. The word “learn,” in the Greek, is from the same root word for “disciple.” In the most basic sense of the word, a disciple is a “learner.”
Jesus first calls us to Him, and then He calls us to follow Him. And please notice that Jesus didn't call us to simply learn about Him, but to learn from Him. As we walk with Him and as He abides within us, we learn from Him. When we hear the Word of God and observe the life of Jesus we learn from Him what it means to be a son and daughter of God.
The problem for many, however, is that the yoke Jesus invites us to take on, does not fit over the yoke of self-righteousness. It is only when we are willing to totally submit to the Lordship of Jesus that we find the rest that we seek.
THE REASON: “for I am gentle and humble in heart,”
And what do we learn from Him who promises us this rest, we learn gentleness and humility of heart. He said to learn of Him, and then He tells us what we will find as we walk in His footsteps, we will find a savior meek and mild, we will find a compassionate soul, we will find a the Perfect Lamb, will find our hearts desire and out passion's fire.
If we learn anything of Him, we must learn the gentleness and humility of heart that enabled Him to love us while we were yet unlovable, and we will go and do likewise.
THE PROMISE: “and you will find rest for your souls.”
Again, the promise for disciples is that we will find rest for our souls. David said in the Twenty-Third Psalm, “He restoreth my soul.” The soul of man is the seat of emotions, intellect and will. It is that part of us that wrestles with God when, instead we should lean upon His everlasting arms. It is that part of man that causes us to toss and turn in the night with anxiety and fear, when we should cast all our cares on Him, for He cares for us.
If we learn the lesson that the life of Christ so powerfully portrays, we would learn that we do not have to succumb to temptation because we have the power of the Word as a sword. We do not have to give in to fear because the God in us is greater than the enemy against us. We do not have to be anxious for anything, because God is in control, He is eyes is on the sparrow, and I know that He's watching over me. He gives me rest for my soul.
A THIRD PROMISE: “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Jesus does not promise us that as His disciples there will not be a yoke or a burden. In fact, we have repeated reminders that in the world there will be tribulation, and they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, and there will be fiery trials, there will be storms, there will be stuff to deal with. We all have a yoke to wear and a burden to bear. Jesus said, “Take up your cross daily and follow me.” So what is the Good News in this third promise?
The good news is that unlike the Pharisees who put heavy burdens on the shoulders of the people, but then would life one finger to help them, Jesus is going to be right by our side, and when it seem the load is more than we can bear, He'll carry the bulk of the load for us.
In Jesus' day the yoke was used to fasten an ox to a cart or a plow. Often a single yoke was used to fasten two oxen together to pull the load. What they found was that two oxen could pull more together than one—that's a no brainer—but that two oxen could pull more together than the sum total of the two oxen separately. That is called synergism and it simply means that we can do more hooked up to Jesus, we can endure more, we can accomplish more, we can bear more with Jesus than we can without Him. And when the load seems more than we can endure, Jesus lightens our load by bearing the bulk of the weight.
There is no such thing as discipleship without a yoke or a burden to bear. Anyone who tries to tell you that if you just have enough faith you'll never face struggle or a storm is trying to sell you something. It is deception and it a dangerous lie from Satan that draws people from the truth and then drops them in their failures. There is no Christ without a cross and there is not victory without a cost. But he promise is that when we are, as the old song said, “Wrapped up, tied up, tangled all up in Jesus,” then He is our burden bearer. He is our rest provider. He is our soul refresher, He is our spirit reviver, He is our source and strength, our shield and sword, and our strong tower.
CONCLUSION
If it seems that your yoke is hard, and the burden is heavy today, if you feel weary and heavy laden and you'd give all that you own for respite in the storm, Jesus is calling you today, “Come unto me.”
To you who are weary, almost to point that you get up on Sunday morning and say, “What's the use? I've been going and giving but still my life is empty, my spirit is broken and my heart is crushed.” To you He says, “Come unto me, I will give you rest.”
Most people I know in churches aren't looking to move mountains, or to make a big splash in the church. Most people I know would give anything for a rest from the storm, the fears, the doubts, the discouragement, and the war that rages in their own mind. Your joy has leaked out. Your peace is gone. And you see yourself like that kitten in the poster that is hanging on to the knot at the end of the rope by one claw, and the caption reads, “Hang in there baby, Friday's Coming.” Many times we feel like we are hanging on by a thread praying for Jesus to come. But it doesn't have to be like that. As a child of God you have been given the promise of joy and peace and rest. You've been given the promise of power. You've been given the promise that Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you. You've been given the Promise of the Father, that is, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter to be with you and in, a living dynamo providing you the strength you need to live the victorious life.
Jesus says to you today, who are weary and heavy burdened, “Come to me.”