Come to Me
Notes
Transcript
Good morning, Gateway Chapel!
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Normally we do announcements at the end, but I wanted to end with Jesus today and not a reminder of the stuff you have to do, so we’re going to do this stuff in the middle. Is that okay?
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If you’ve traveled with little kids, you know they require a lot of gear.
Kids come with baggage, literally. I experienced this when we went to the beach a few weekends ago.
We went to Seabrook. Anybody been? Super fun. It’s like Martha Stewart meets Ocean Shores.
The issue with Seabrook is you can’t drive onto the beach. You have to hike down a hill that’s probably 200 feet above the beach. You either take about 20 flights of stairs, or you take a really cool hiking trail that’s called the Gnome Trail - super fun for kids but it just takes a long time.
So if you’re a parent, you can’t just put your stuff in the car and drive to the beach. You have to carry it.
Here’s a picture of the ordeal.
Now, my face is misleading. Within minutes I was not smiling.
I felt like a Navy Seal doing some terrible training walking through soft sand.
Isabelle is 40 pounds!
Within minutes I started losing circulation in my hands.
I haven’t worked out in months so I don’t feel particularly ready for this.
It was a heavy load.
The stuff I was carrying didn’t fit well. It hurt my shoulders. I really wished there was another way to carry all of it.
I think life can feel like this.
All the responsibilities, worries, tasks, and things we need to get done start to weigh on us.
We feel the endless weight of things we need to do - grocery shopping, making meals, yard work, fixing that leaky faucet, calling the guy about the thing, not seeing family enough, not having enough time for friends, being behind on work projects, caring for kids, getting them up in the morning, teeth brushed, out the door, having time to enjoy them, having time away from them…it’s’ a lot.
It’s a part of the human condition to want it to stop. To stop the endless burden of life and just rest.
And not only does life in general feel like this, Christianity can feel like this.
It can feel like there is an endless list of things God wants me to do. Man, on top of that list of day-to-day life I need to read my Bible more, find time to pray, I’ve always wanted to do a prayer retreat, serve at church, gotta find time to “Do life together” whatever that means, someone said Sabbath is a good idea so I need to do that too...
And as we fail to do the things we think we ought to do, we have a growing sense that God is generally displeased with us.
Like I started losing feeling in my hands, it’s like you start losing circulation in your soul.
In our passage this morning, Jesus calls out to those of us who are tired of carrying too much weight.
In Matthew 11:25-30, Jesus says “Come to me! I will give you rest!”
But what kind of rest is Jesus offering? What’s different about his rest and how can he offer such a thing? How can he say his burden is easy and light when he also asks his followers to come after him and die?
In Matthew 11:25-30, we will see that Jesus is uniquely capable of offering rest to tired souls.
Jesus reveals the Father - whose heart is for us to come and find rest in Him.
In our passage he makes a claim, and an invitation.
Prayer
Now, maybe you’re wondering if you’ve somehow missed 4 Sundays of sermons because we skipped over a chapter and a half of Matthew.
We will be wrapping up Matthew before Thanksgiving so we’ll be going at a faster speed.
But I wanted us to touch down on this passage because it is so unique in Matthew.
And it plays a key role in thinking about the main point of Matthew - that Jesus is the King and he invites us to live in his Kingdom. So who is this King and what does it mean to live in his Kingdom? Matthew 11:25-30 offers a really special look into that question.
Matthew 5-7 was Jesus teaching on the kingdom, chapters 8-10 were examples of what it looks like when the kingdom comes to your neighborhood (healings, miracles, forgiveness, people following Jesus), and chapters 11-13 are how different people respond to the kingdom.
Life with God is not what we expect. Even John the Baptist asks Jesus, “Wait, so are you the Christ or should we wait for someone else?”
In chapters 11-13, we see that not everyone accepts the invitation into the kingdom.
Our passage today is preceded by Jesus pronouncing warnings on the cities where most of his miracles were performed. They saw the King bring the Kingdom and they said, “Nah.”
And Jesus calls out their pride, their indifference to life with God and says it will be their downfall.
First, Jesus makes a claim.
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.
26 “Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.
27 “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
Jesus here makes the audacious claim that he alone reveals the Father.
The Lord of heaven and earth is seen clearly through Jesus.
This claim gives us a window into the prayer life of Jesus.
“At that time” when people were disregarding him, he prayed a prayer of thanks to God.
Jesus claims to reveal the Father. And in these verses we learn five things...
We cannot find God on our own.
We cannot find God on our own.
Knowing God is entirely up to God.
Jesus says that the cities who rejected him have the knowledge of God hidden from them because of their pride.
They THINK they’re wise and intelligent. But God is the kind of God who loves to humble the proud and raise up the lowly.
Imagine some of the religious elite looking down on those following Jesus, “Man, they saw one little miracle and they think this guy is the Messiah! They’re like stupid children.”
Jesus has all authority from the Father.
Jesus has all authority from the Father.
Is it any wonder some people thought Jesus was crazy?
Is it any wonder some people wanted to kill him? Today, many people are indifferent to Jesus and treat him as just another good person. But he also said stuff like this.
Having once been an agnostic, C.S. Lewis expressed:
I am trying to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claims to be God.” That is one thing we must not say.
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the devil of hell.
You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.3515
C. S. Lewis
Only the Father truly knows Jesus.
Only the Father truly knows Jesus.
Take a theology class at seminary and you’ll learn that it’s hard to pin down Jesus.
What does it mean that he’s fully God and fully man? How does substitutionary atonement actually work?
Jesus is making a claim about himself to those who would know him and telling them that he has an entirely exclusive and unique relationship with God the Father.
Only Jesus truly knows the Father.
Only Jesus truly knows the Father.
Ghandhi quote
The Jewish people had the OT Scriptures to reveal God to them, but Jesus is saying you’re looking to Scripture to understand God, but I’m the only one who truly knows Him.
Jesus wants us to know the Father.
Jesus wants us to know the Father.
It is not the Father’s desire to be hidden.
He sent us Jesus to reveal his heart.
And as believers we know that the Father’s heart is seen most clearly on the cross. And…in passages like this we also see Matthew’s unique angle. That even though we - like the cities where Jesus performed his miracles - rejected Jesus, God still comes after us.
It is the desire of every human soul to find God.
You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.
Augustine of Hippo
And we know in our souls that if we really find him, we’ll find rest, satisfaction, fulfillment.
And Jesus says…look no further than me. Even the OT points to me. Your Sabbath practices point to me. Everything points to me and I will lead you to life.
Jesus makes a claim, and an invitation.
28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, 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.”
Jesus reveals the Father - whose heart is for us to come and find rest in Him.
Jesus here is riffing off a well known poem in his day by Rabbi Ben Sira, where he speaks as Wisdom personified saying,
Sirach 51:23–27 (NRSV)
23 Draw near to me, you who are uneducated,
and lodge in the house of instruction.
26 Put your neck under her yoke,
and let your souls receive instruction;
it is to be found close by.
27 See with your own eyes that I have labored but little
and found for myself much serenity.
Yet in this poem, we’re instructed to come to Wisdom, but Jesus shows a higher authority saying Come to Me! And I will give you rest.
Jesus says, “Come to Me”
And my NASB says, “All who work to exhaustion.”
Jesus knew the Jewish people were tired from working to keep the law. And while the religious leaders were right to guide people towards obedience to God, they missed God’s grace and were actually crushing the people.
4 “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.
Jesus says to them...I will give you rest.
Rest is what comes on the Sabbath. And what follows our passage is two stories about the Sabbath.
The Sabbath was the Jewish day of rest. It was the day when God’s people could STOP working and remember and worship God. God rested on the 7th day after he made creation. Israel was to rest from work once a week as a sign of their covenant with God - we’re the people of rest.
And now Jesus is saying, “Sabbath rest was meant to point you to me.” Or as he’ll say in Chapter 12…I am Lord of the Sabbath.”
Think of it this way…when the sun comes out in the morning, do you turn on your lights outside? No, you don’t need them anymore. Jesus is saying, I’m the real thing.
Take my yoke upon you...
A yoke is an image of service and union.
A yoke was a wooden bar placed over oxen to link them together and help them carry a heavy load. The animal is in the service of their owner, and they’re closely linked together to help each other pull a heavy load.
Jews would use the phrase “the yoke of the law” which every Jew should be proud to carry.
But Jesus says take MY yoke…learn from ME…why?
For I am gentle and lowly in heart...
This is the only time in the Gospels where Jesus speaks of his own heart.
If we want to know what makes Jesus tick…we cannot forget about Matt. 11:29.
We can talk about who Jesus is - fully man and fully God - we can talk about what Jesus did - incarnated in the flesh, died and rose on the third day, ascended to heavey - but what is he like?
I am gentle and lowly in heart.
Later in chapter 12, Matthew will say, Jesus fulfills this prophecy of Isaiah -
18 “Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen;
My Beloved in whom My soul is well-pleased;
I will put My Spirit upon Him,
And He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
19 “He will not quarrel, nor cry out;
Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.
20 “A battered reed He will not break off,
And a smoldering wick He will not put out,
Until He leads justice to victory.
21 “And in His name the Gentiles will hope.”
Jesus is so gentle that if he were to walk by a reed that was bent in the middle…it wouldn’t tip over.
Jesus is so humble and lowly that if he were to walk by a candle that was nearly out…it wouldn’t go out.
He’s that kind of King.
Do you think of Jesus as gentle and lowly in heart?
Or is Jesus cryptic, distant, an unemotional teacher?
Gentle and lowly doesn’t mean limp noodle…just read most of Matthew.
If your coworker said, “Tell me what Jesus is like.” What would you say? Holy. Good. Perfect. The Christ. Those things are true and yet here in his own words we get this...
“This, according to his own testimony, is Christ’s very heart. This is who he is. Tender. Open. Welcoming. Accommodating. Understanding. Willing. If we are asked to say only one thing about who Jesus is, we would be honoring Jesus’ own teaching if our answer is, gentle and lowly. If Jesus hosted his own personal website, the most prominent line of the “About Me” dropdown would read: GENTLE AND LOWLY IN HEART.” - Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund, 21.
My yoke is easy and my burden is light...
Wait, doesn’t Jesus call us to follow him and pick up our cross? Love our enemies? Lose our lives?
You guys know…Christianity is not easy.
It’s not a call to an easy life, but a life lived with Him - the one who is gentle and lowly in heart. It’s a good life. It’s REAL life.
Christianity is not free from demands and service - but putting on the yoke of Jesus is realigning priorities that makes the heavy load LIGHTER.
Rather than carrying all the gear down to the beach awkwardly, Jesus says, let me help you and I will give you rest.
In the middle of Matthew 11-13 where all sorts of people are trying to figure out - who is Jesus? How do we respond to him? Jesus calls out - Come to Me!
I’m the fulfillment of the Law, I’m the true Sabbath. I’m gentle and lowly in heart. Learn from me and you will find rest for your souls.
Jesus reveals the Father - whose heart is for us to come and find rest in Him.
What does it look like for us to rest in Jesus today?
There’s a danger in leaving you here with a cliche.
What does it mean to find rest for our souls?
I wonder if we took a poll at Gateway Chapel and said
On a scale of 1 to 10…with 1 being dead tired and 10 being at rest…what is the state of your soul today?
What would the survey show? I doubt we’d get all 10’s.
There is a version of Christianity - which I am not innocent of promoting and living - that looks much like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day.
Who is Jesus? He’s perfect! So be perfect. Stop sinning.
Serve at church. Be a part of a community group. Be discipled. Disciple someone else. Tell your neighbors about Jesus. Read theology books. Listen to Christian podcasts.
Be informed on Christian ethics…don’t know about what the Bible says about sex and politics? You should read more!
You don’t Sabbath? Good Christians Sabbath.
The great Christians journaled. You need a moleskin.
Read your Bible and pray. Every Day. For at least an hour. 30 minutes…I mean we’ll take it but an hour would be better.
God likes you more when you do more for Him.
Gateway Chapel - we are not a conquer the world congregation.
We’re not going to charge the hill and take Sumner. If I gave that kind of sermon you guys would be like, “Do I have to?”
About half of our church is either retired or nearing retirement or well past retirement. You guys have done church stuff for decades. Been faithful. You’re not doing as much church activity as you used to…what does God think about that?
Another large chunk is young families. We don’t have time. If the kid doesn’t nap, or someone is cranky, or we didn’t sleep…don’t count on us for anything. Our daily Bible reading and praying rhythms are scattered at best. Are we disappointing God?
This hits home for me.
We just had a kid a little over two months ago. Our daily rhythms are coming back but they’re very different than pre-Simon.
I’m a morning person. I like my morning routine. I listen to podcasts where guys talk about how all godly men have a morning routine. And I hear that…and I take it to heart.
So when I tell you that one time in the last two months I’ve been able to get up and have extended Bible reading time…I feel shame. I feel like I’m missing the mark.
What does it mean for us to find rest in Jesus?
28 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. 29 Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 30 Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
We are invited to learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
Reading our Bibles, praying, fasting, solitude and silence…these are important rhythms to cultivate life with Jesus.
But when we make them hard and fast rules to grade ourselves, it’s like putting another camping chair on your back on the way back from the beach…you’re going to collapse!
What would it look like for us to come to Jesus and learn these unforced rhythms of grace?
I think it would look like us prioritizing an unhurried pace of life. Jesus was very busy…but he was never hurried.
It would look like planning to rest. Jesus took a lot of vacation. He withdrew often. He Sabbathed…but he didn’t use Sabbath as a ridged set of rules by which to gauge his spiritual success.
It would look like searching for moments of connection with Jesus throughout the day. If I’m honest, many times I can enjoy the fact that I’m so cool to have read my Bible MORE than I enjoy Jesus.
It would look like a growing sense of joy over God’s love rather than an ominous sense of guilt.
It would look like a growing belief in Jesus as gentle and lowly in heart rather than apathetic, angry, or austere.
For me, it would look like holding my son in his little swaddle, and just looking at him.
And simple prayers to Jesus - thank you for loving me like I love this little boy. Holding Simon and contemplating…my love for him comes from your love for me. Man...And just seeing where the conversation goes from there.
Come to Me…and stop working yourself to exhaustion.
Jesus reveals the Fathers heart - which rather than leaving his rebellious world to its own back breaking efforts - came and loved us, revealed himself to us, so that through faith in him we can find life.
Are you tired? Find rest in Jesus.
As you can imagine, I did make it back up the hill carrying all that stuff. Including Isabelle.
But as we got towards the end I was feeling it. So tired.
And so I said to Isabelle...”Kiddo, I need your help with something.”
“Yeah Dada?”
“I need you to say, Dada, you got this.”
And so she helped me get to the house as she said, “Dada, you got this.”
Jesus says take my yoke. Work with me.
Let him speak to you this week in the various ways he does. “We got this. I got this. Keep going.”
And find rest in Him.