Where are you looking?
Notes
Transcript
Claim: It pleases God to reveal himself only through Jesus and predominately to the weak not the wise.
Focus: God chooses His people, not based on intelligence but humility.
Function: To praise God for his predisposition to the weak not the proud. (That obviously has implications for how we ought to view ourselevs!)
On first reading, I’m not sure there are many bible passages that raise so many questions!
Every sentence is fairly clear, but seems to making quite extraordinary claims!
Here are some questions I wrote down when I first started prepareing this sermon.
Why does it please God to exclude the wise and learned?
and Is this fair?
If we can only Know God if Jesus chooses us to know him, well then What if Jesus doesn’t choose me?
and is that fair?
What sort of rest is Jesus offering those who are Weary and burdened - does Jesus make my difficult life easy?
What is Jesus’ yoke that he gives us?
So with so many questions - we better get started.
There are 3 main sections to this short passage, so we’ll break it up accordingly,
The 3 main sections are simple.
First off,
Jesus Praises God the Father, v25-26
Jesus Explains some theology to His disciples, v27
Jesus Invites Everyone to himself, v28-30
1 - Jesus Praises the Father that He is Pleased to Hide Salvation from the Wise and Reveal it to the Weak
1 - Jesus Praises the Father that He is Pleased to Hide Salvation from the Wise and Reveal it to the Weak
At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
It’s quiet an unusual pray that Jesus offers up to God the Father in praise here.
It’s fascinating enough that Jesus, who throughout his life and this book of Matthew demonstrates himself to be God the Son, still deems it fitting to praise God the father.
It shouldn’t suprise us - given Jesus knows all thet God the Father is - almighty and glorious in every way and worthy of all praise and honour.
But it should probably challenge us, that Jesus, God the Son, equally worthy, still does not consider equality with God something to be grasped but praises Him,
Our challenge is to remember to also Praise God the Father for he is worthy.
Prayer should typically begin with praise and honour - for it establishes our reverence and awe for our Loving Father.
But then see what Jesus specifically praises the Father for here.
That God is pleased to hide something from the wise and learned and reveal it instead to little children.!
Our first question
What is being hidden or revealed?
In Context it simply must be the Gospel that Jesus the saviour has come to bring about God’s new kingdom -
For example, John the Baptists disciples in the previous passage are told to go and report to John what they have ‘seen of Jesus’ - in other words that his miracles confirm who he is - the promised Messiah who will save God’s people!
They would believe!
However, the towns and villages that Jesus’ disciples had gone around in chapter 10 saw incredible things Jesus did and still did not believe! Despite being told the Good news, the gospel.
Here were Jesus instructions to his missionary disciples
As you go, proclaim this message: “The kingdom of heaven has come near.”
So The Father reveals or hides the Kingdom of Heaven as he sees fit.
Which raises our next question,
Why does it please God to exclude the wise and learned?
Well we’ve seen in the last 2 chapters that as the disciples and Jesus have proclaimed this message there is a fairly persistent rejection of Jesus as their saviour.
Why? Because they think they have life sorted on their own. They are wise and learned - so don’t need Jesus.
Matt 10 38-39 give us that impression at least.
Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
Those who reject Jesus do so becasue they believe they have found life already in this world and they don’t need a ‘different’ message that promises a future life at the expense of a sacrificial life now.
How wise they are and learned. How, well, like us they are.
But the reality, as is consistently clear in the Bible, is that salvation is not a matter of worldly wisdom and intelligence.
No, it is a matter of grace - God’s free gift.
not earned or worked out by cleaver people.
So, Jesus is not actually praising God that not a single wise person can or will be saved -
rather that it is in God’s plan that the way to knowing salvation is not the way of human excellence or wisdom
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’
So it is little children who can receive Jesus much more easily that wise people - becasue worldly wisdom actually gets in the way!
And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
So, Is this fair?
Of course -
The wise may certainly still repent and believe and receive the gospel - but they will do so as little children - not as wise men and women!
If we want to be saved, we must not think we can save ourselevs - we must come empty handed, aware we bring nothing as a child before their parent.
God is more than fair - Salvation is open to all, not just cleaver people or the middle class, or achedemics, or rulers - but to the weak, the disadvantaged, the uneducated, and the under achiever
Salvation is for all - but it is not something you can earn or work out by yourself.
It is - purely - as we’re about to see a free gift.
And that is worth praising God for -as Jesus does!
Father, we praise you that our salavtions is not reserved for wise and learned people - infact their wisdom may casue them to think they can save themselevs!
Instead we praise you that your kingdom is open to all who will come to you in humility, like little children.
We praise you, v26 that it pleases you to share your salavtion out like this,
Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
But, if salvation is free gift not in any way achievable by ourselevs - that has other implications.
So next,
2 - Jesus Explains that you can only Know the Father if Jesus Chooses You
2 - Jesus Explains that you can only Know the Father if Jesus Chooses You
‘All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Jesus is quite clear here. All things have been committed to him by God the Father - probably a reference to the immediate content, speaking about how to know God and be saved.
But could also be true of ‘literally all things’ as Jesus we know is God the Son.
But the next phrase is really significant.
No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son.
The disciples might have taken some offence at this - but the reality is that they don’t yet comprehend enough of who Jesus the Son of God is yet - only the Father does.
They haven’t yet grasped his deity, his sovereign call,, his nature of being fully human and fully God - his coming death on the cross of calvary to absorb the right wrath of the Father for the sins of those whom he chooses to save!
But it is also true that they did not yet know who God the Father was - for only the Son knows the father!
Many people in the 1st century would agree that no-one can really ‘know’ God, as most religions and even non-religious people would agree today!
But what is shocking is not that Jesus says you don’t know who the Father is, but that he says He does!
God is intimately and fully known by Jesus the Son, and the Jesus the son is likewise known intimately by the Father.
In a fallen and sinful world, no-one can, or could, or even should, know the Father God -
but here is Jesus claiming both divinity as the Son of God, and humanity - for that is very evident to his disciples as he stands and talks with them!
In other words - if Jesus is correct - The impossible barrier between humanity and God is being bridged!
And so - I asked the wrong question when I first started on this passage.
I asked:
What if Jesus doesn’t choose me to ‘know the Father’?
The question really is, how can anyone know the Father! What a claim Jesus is making!
Sin and evil exiist in the very heart of my heart and soul of my soul.
My own self deluded wisdom tells me everyday that I know what is best,
and I know how to live life,
and I know how to save myself,
and I know how to know God,
And yet the truth is I’m utterly and completely lost in my own wisdom,
deluded by my knowdleeg and arrogance and pride.
I have NO hope of knowing God whatsoever!
And so praise Jesus the Son, that HE is the ONLY hope I have of avoiding the judgement of God,
and enjoying His grace and love eternally
- IF - by his grace he chooses to reveal God the Father to me in His great mercy and love.
Yes - if we ask the question -
What if Jesus doesn’t choose me to ‘know the Father’?
Well then rightly and fairly the answer is then we will face the right judgement upon our rebelion and sin against God the Father.
But the answer is also - Praise Jesus that he chooses some - or all would be lost.
And if you’re sat here today wondering if you have been chosen, predestined we sometimes say, elect.
Well the answer is simple.
If you want Jesus to save you because you have seen your sin, and you see him as King and saviour,
and you want to therefore repent and believe and strive to live for him - then you HAVE been chosen.
You His beloved ‘little child’
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,
But if in your pride you do not want to repent and humble yourself before the almighty - well then you have only your stubborn pride to blame when you stand before the Lord God on judgement day.
You have not been chosen, but you have received what you are asking for.
So repent - before it is too late.
And then you will find your name is in the book of life - Jesus has paid for your sin by his blood - you are chosen and loved, adored and worth dying for.
No wonder Jesus praised God the Father for his great wisdom and mercy.
Hearing that God chooses his people is the only hope any of us have - otherwise there is no good news, no salvation, no hope.
We would never know God,
we would continue in our deluded wisdom and face his wrath.
And so Jesus’ love in choosing some does not leave us, or even Jesus saying - tough luck if you’re not on the list!
No rather
3 - Jesus Invites the Weary and Burdened to Himself
3 - Jesus Invites the Weary and Burdened to Himself
‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’
How amazing that Jesus, who chooses, invites ‘all’ those who are troubled!
I wont pretend that ‘election’ (Jesus choosing His people) is an easy biblical doctrine to get our heads around - but who wants a God we can fully understand!
But we must hold his sovereign election in hand with his universal invitation to all who are troubled to come to him!
We thought a few weeks ago about how ‘suffering’ in life is actually God’s loving reminder to come back to him. he is our only hope for a perfect eternity.
And so it is with Jesus’ call.
without any qualification or explanation he simply says - if you are wearied and burdened with life - I’m your hope.
Come to me and I will refresh your soul! you will find I have chosen you!
This refreshing of soul is not a removal of all of lifes burdens, but a change of ownership for the new believer.
Whatever yoke you are currently under, Jesus’ yoke is easier.
A yoke is an illustration taken from the farming world, where the yoke is a collar over the shoulders of an ox as it pulls a plough.
But is signifies in the OT being in servitude to conquerer.
For the Jews they were in servitude to the over zealous Pharisees who added impossible rules to the Good OT law of God.
For us our world is enslaved to false ideologies and identifies, to the rule of comfort and success and health,
all things that are a heavy burden to pursue -
because ultimately they are cruel masters who never repay you with kindness.
Even any perceived success in life will still end with our death at which point we will discover as we stand before our maker and judge, that all along we were enslaved to the lies of the devil!
But Jesus is a much kinder ‘conquerer’!
He is still King and ruler, we are to live for him and in service to him as is made clear.
Jesus till has a yoke for us,
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.
But his yoke is easy.
Clearly not easy in a put your feet up sense, no we are to sacrifice, and obey and live rightly for Jesus.
Read through the sermon on the mount again, Matt 5-7 if you need reminding of Jesus’ call to his chosen believers! - we are to take up a cross daily!
But what is easy is that HE is gentle and humble!
So humble he gave up the glory of heaven to walk as a man on earth and die the death of a criminal on a cross for us!
He’s not an arrogant tyrant who promises much and delivers nothing.
He promises everything, delivers everything and does it all for us freely.
There is a path to now walk of learning from him and living for him,
but we know where we are headed!
No longer wearied and burdened (even if the work is hard) for our SOULS have restoration and eternal hope!
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’
Let us have the courage to prasie God this week that His kingdom is not accessed through wissdom and knowldge - but through the free gift of salavation in Jesus.
Let us this week have the courage to praise Jesus that it is His will and choise as to who will know God and find slaavtion. Praise him that without His love, no-one - includeing us - could ever be saved.
And let us hear and pass on his invitation to ALL - to come to the Lord Jesus who is gentle and humble, kind and gracious - and holds out rest now for our souls, as we live in Hope for His eternal rule over his loved and chosen people.
PRAY
At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. ‘All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’