The scripture reading this morning comes from Matthew chapter 11.
Please follow along on the screen, the bulletin, or on your Bible.
Starting in verse 25, we read,
At that time, Jesus declared,
I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding
and revealed them to little children.
Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father,
and no one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy,
and my burden is light.
This is the word of God.
Amen.
Okay, I think there we go.
Thank you, Angie, for reading that,
and thank you to the musicians for leading us in worship.
It was, man, what a wonderful time.
Welcome to those of you who don't know me.
My name is Kevin.
I'm one of the elder pastors here,
and it's great to be with you this morning.
To those of you in the community center
or at home watching on YouTube,
welcome to you as well.
A very warm welcome to our church family.
We are working our way through Matthew's gospel.
We've been doing that slowly over a fair while.
Two years ago we started it,
and we took a break for two years or so.
In the last eight weeks,
we've been working from chapter 8 to chapter 11.
And today's our last section in Matthew's gospel
for a little while,
then we'll take a break and pick it up again.
And we come to this amazing, amazing passage,
very famous passage in chapter 11.
But in order to understand this,
let's just remind ourselves
what's been happening in chapter 11.
You'll remember earlier on, chapter 9,
there's this kind of famous summary
of what's been going on in Matthew's gospel,
where Matthew says,
Jesus went around in all the cities of Galilee,
proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom
and healing every disease and affliction.
And Jesus is doing this amazing work and ministry,
and it elicits a response from various people.
Some people, as Chris explained to us last week,
are confused and full of doubt about who Jesus is.
One of these people is John the Baptist.
You remember, John the Baptist came with this fiery message.
He says to the religious leaders of his day,
you brood of vipers,
you bunch of snakes.
He says,
the axe is at the tree
waiting to cut you guys down.
And John the Baptist expected
that when the Messiah came,
he was going to reform the whole Jewish system.
He was going to wipe out all the corruption
and overhaul the system and start again.
And then when Jesus came,
he wasn't anything like what John the Baptist expected.
And so John is confused,
and he sends this message to Jesus saying,
hey, did I get something wrong?
Did I miss the memo here?
You and me are going to come and sort us all out,
and you just are doing all sorts of good.
And John is confused,
and he's full of doubts.
Other people are confounded by Jesus
because he doesn't dance to their tune.
Do you remember there's that amazing little line
where Jesus says,
the people of this generation
are like children who play in the marketplace,
and they say,
hey, we played a dance song for you,
and you didn't dance.
We played a dirge,
like a mourning song,
and you didn't mourn.
What's up with you, Jesus?
And Jesus says,
I don't dance to your tune.
I don't march to your drumbeat.
And this irritates them and frustrates them.
And so they write them off as a heretic
and as a lunatic.
And what Jesus is saying here
is that if you want to experience his grace,
if you want to encounter
the life-transforming power of Jesus,
you've got to come to him on his terms.
You've got to come to him as he reveals himself.
You can't come to him with your preconceived ideas.
You can't try and put Jesus in a box
and say, well, this is what I need from a Messiah.
You come to Jesus like that,
and you're going to be a bitly disappointed.
But if you come to him and say,
Jesus, I'm willing to learn from you.
Who are you?
If we come to him on his terms,
in that place,
we find the life-transforming power,
life-transforming grace of Jesus.
And so that's what's happening.
And so at the end of that passage,
we get to this very famous passage in chapter 11.
And look at this passage with me.
Jesus says this from verse 28.
We're going to focus on verse 28 to 30.
Jesus says,
Come to me,
all you who labor,
who are weary,
heavy laden.
I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you.
Learn from me,
for I am gentle and lowly in heart.
You will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy,
and my burden is light.
Friends,
if there's one thing that every human heart longs for,
no matter what your culture,
your background,
your ethnicity,
your language,
or your social status,
every human being longs for that rest,
that deep soul rest.
All of us long to rest in peace,
not only one day when we die,
but even in this lifetime.
And if you've ever been in a difficult relationship,
or you've ever been in a relationship that's under strain,
you'll know that is the least restful state of being.
That is the most stressful position anyone could be in,
a relationship where there's conflict.
But a right relationship brings rest.
And Jesus claimed there that ultimate rest,
true lasting rest,
peace,
the longing that every human heart has,
comes only through being in relationship with Him.
Jesus, in a sense,
is saying,
I am the true rest maker.
You want real rest?
I'm the one that you must embrace.
Jesus here is actually quoting from a very famous passage
in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah,
chapter 6.
The nation of Israel is in a relationship with God,
but the relationship is very strained.
And God says to Israel,
He says,
Stand at the crossroads.
Stand at the ancient roads, paths,
and ask for the good way,
and walk in it.
And when you walk in it,
you will find rest for your souls.
Everybody wants modern solutions to our ancient problems, right?
You want to try Google it,
or new piece of technology.
We're all looking for modern solutions
to our ancient problems.
Jesus says that our ancient problems
can only be fixed by ancient solutions.
God says to the nation of Israel,
Go to the crossroads,
and go ask for the ancient paths,
and walk in them,
and you'll find rest for your souls.
And what Jesus is saying here is,
that ancient path,
that for thousands of years,
people from every culture
have found that has led to peace,
is actually the path it leads to me.
Look at all the personal pronouns in this passage.
Look at what Jesus says here.
He says,
Come to me,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you.
Learn from me,
for I am gentle in heart.
I am lowly in heart.
My yoke is easy.
My burden is light.
Eight or nine times there,
Jesus is calling attention to himself.
Jesus doesn't say,
Go to God,
and he will give you rest.
That's what you'd expect from a prophet
or a religious guru.
Jesus doesn't say,
Look within yourself,
deal with your issues,
and that will find you rest.
Almost every modern philosophy
will tell you to look within yourself.
Jesus doesn't call us to join a religion,
to sign up to an institution,
or to go on a religious pilgrimage.
Jesus tells us that the kind of soul rest
that every human being is desperately looking for
is not found in a daily practice
or a great beach vacation,
as wonderful as that is.
It's found in coming to the person of Jesus himself.
Jesus is always saying things like this.
Jesus says things like,
I am the bread of life.
If you want to satisfy your soul,
you've got to come to me.
Jesus says,
I am the light of the world.
Unless you come to me,
you'll always grope around in the dark.
Jesus says,
I am the great physician.
Only by coming to me
can you be truly healed
of your cancer of sin
and be made whole.
Jesus says in John 7,
If anyone is thirsty,
let him come to me and drink.
Jesus is forever talking like this.
Now do you know what that means?
It doesn't mean that if you come to Jesus,
all your problems will be solved
and life will just be rosy, right?
Just ask our friends,
Gloria and Wilson in Australia.
Their five-year-old son
going through chemo at the moment.
Following Jesus doesn't mean
that life is just
walking on cloud nine
or a bed of roses.
But
Jesus is saying here
that if you have Christ,
if you're in Christ,
the deepest longing of our hearts
and our souls
are met.
And that apart from Christ,
you can have all the treasures
in the world,
all the money in the world,
but there'll still be
an empty gnawing
in your heart.
Augustine famously said,
you made us for yourself,
oh Lord,
and our hearts
will forever be restless
until they find
their rest in you.
It's amazing.
Our hearts will forever be restless
until they find
their rest in you.
Now, of course,
all this talk about
how Jesus is the one
is kind of what you'd expect
from a Sunday sermon
at church, right?
I hope that's what you'd expect,
not something else.
But
Jesus is not just
talking about Sundays here.
Jesus is not just saying,
listen, on Sunday,
don't go and play golf,
don't go to the beach,
come to church
and you'll find rest
for your souls.
What about Monday to Friday?
What about the rest
of our lives?
What Jesus is saying here
is what we sang earlier,
Lord, I need you.
Every hour,
I need you.
Monday to Friday,
every day of the week
in the places of our lives
that are most exhausting,
most wearisome,
most draining
in our work life,
in our relationships,
in our finances,
maybe at home,
in those relationships
that are tough,
with our children,
in those places,
come and find your rest
in Him
and He will give us
what we so desperately need
and long for
to come and give us
the rest of our hearts.
We spoke about Augustine
a minute ago.
Augustine,
if you don't know him,
he was a philosopher,
theologian,
hundreds of years ago
in the fourth century.
And Augustine was raised
by his mother
to believe and trust in Jesus.
But when he grew up,
he wanted nothing
to do with Jesus.
And so he ran as far as he could
in the opposite direction.
And he was born in,
I think, Algeria, Africa.
He went to Alexander
and Egypt
and then to Rome.
And he ran as far away
from Jesus as he could
because he thought
Jesus is going to restrain
his joy and his pleasure.
And so he was on a mission
to maximize his pleasure.
And he did that primarily
through as many relationships
as he could.
He was famous in his town
for being a real playboy.
And then sometime
in the middle of his adult life,
he hits a crisis,
he picks up a Bible
and he reads Romans 13.
And God's word pierces his heart,
arrests him on the spot
and he gives his life to Christ.
He surrenders to Jesus
and becomes a follower of Jesus.
But listen to what Augustine wrote
in his autobiography.
It's a little bit wordy,
so I apologize,
but see if you can follow on with me.
He says this,
Late have I come to you,
beauty so old and yet so new.
And yet you were within me all along.
I was in the external world
and I sought for you out there.
And in my unlovely state,
I plunged deep into those lovely created things,
things which you made.
But those lovely things
kept me far from you,
even though apart from you
they have no existence at all.
You called and cried out loud.
You shattered my deafness.
You were radiant and resplendent.
Resplendent means exceedingly beautiful.
You were radiant and resplendent.
You put to flight my blindness.
You were fragrant
and I drew in my breath
and now I pant after you.
I tasted you once
and now I hunger and I thirst for you.
You touched me
and now I burn like fire
to attain the peace
which is found in you.
You see what Augustine's saying there?
He's saying,
I ran all over the place looking for you.
I searched in all the lovely things of this world.
I looked for sex,
I looked for romance,
I looked for knowledge,
I studied in Alexander,
the leading institutions of the age.
I looked for you everywhere
but those things kept me
from the peace I actually needed
which is found in you.
And I tasted you once
and now I burn like fire
for the peace that is found within you.
Friends, is that you?
Are you weary and hungry for rest?
Jesus says,
come to me.
I am the rest maker.
I give you peace.
And notice,
who is it that Jesus is inviting here?
Jesus doesn't invite those
who have found their self-worth
or self-satisfied or self-sufficient.
Jesus does not promise rest
to those that have earned it
through hard work and striving.
Jesus promises his life-giving rest
not as a reward to the faithful
but as a gift to those who need it.
All those who are weary and heavy laden,
come to me, says Jesus.
Friends, Jesus invites the exhausted,
the storm-tossed,
the poor in spirit,
the anxious,
the abused,
those who carry baggage,
those who carry guilt,
those who carry scars in life.
Anyone who is wearied by life's burdens,
Jesus says,
come to me
and I will give you rest.
Now,
what does it actually mean
to come to Jesus?
Jesus says,
come to me,
but what does that actually mean?
Well,
look at our passage here.
In this passage,
Jesus gives us two instructions.
The first one is he says,
come to me,
verse 28.
But the second one,
verse 29,
Jesus says,
take my yoke upon you.
And that's actually what it means
to come to Jesus.
Now,
you may be familiar
with the language of yoke,
but if you're not,
a yoke is the wooden bar
that farmers would put
across the soldiers
of their oxen
or their horses
or something
to join two oxen together
so that they could pull
a cart
or plow a field
that they could work
in tandem together
and be effective.
And so,
they would get these two oxen,
put this wooden yoke,
this bar across their shoulders
with a collar around
so that they wouldn't
drift off separately.
And together,
these oxen could do
what the farmer
was needing them to do.
Now,
what would happen
in the ancient world,
apparently,
maybe still in some countries
in the world,
is that if you had
a new oxen
and an older oxen,
you would put the new oxen,
yoke them together
with the older,
bigger,
stronger oxen
to teach them
and to train them.
And so,
a new cow
would be yoked together
with an older,
stronger,
bigger one
so that he could be broken
and learn the way
of the farming.
But the other thing
that I learned recently,
Chris actually taught me this,
I didn't know this,
I didn't know Chris
was a farmer,
but apparently,
that if you've got,
that sometimes farmers
would have a bigger collar
and a smaller collar.
And you'd think
that the bigger collar
would go on the bigger oxen,
the stronger one,
the older one,
and the smaller collar
would go on the younger,
smaller oxen.
But actually,
farmers would often put
the smaller collar
on the bigger,
older oxen
because that ox
could then carry
the weight,
the burden,
and the young ox or cow
that is still being broken in
could still find its way
and didn't have to carry
the full weight
of the burden
on its shoulders.
Friends,
you see what Jesus
is saying here?
Jesus says,
you anxious,
you weary,
come and take
my yoke upon you.
Jesus is saying,
ironically,
that the only way
to be truly free,
the only way
to really find
the rest that we long for,
that we so desperately want,
the kind of rest
that lasts longer
than a week
or a month
or longer than
a good holiday,
is not found
in extended beach holidays,
is not found
in more leisure activities,
it's actually found
in being yoked to him
and what that means is
by surrendering
our autonomy,
actually coming
and submitting
ourselves to him,
coming under his authority
and allowing ourselves
to be mastered by him.
And that's completely
counterintuitive
and countercultural.
Jesus says that
only as we come to him
and allow ourselves
to be mastered by him,
submit to him,
do we actually find
the freedom
that we want.
Now Jesus was not
the first one
to come up with this analogy.
In the first century,
all rabbis spoke about
the yoke of their teaching.
And what they meant by that
was come under my doctrine,
my teaching,
and you'll take my yoke.
But Jesus points out
what everybody knew
but was too scared to say.
In Matthew 23,
Jesus says this,
he's speaking about
the religious leaders
and he says,
these religious leaders,
they preach
but they cannot practice
what they preach.
They tie up heavy burdens,
hard to bear,
and they lay them
on people's shoulders
but they themselves
cannot even bear
those burdens
that they put on others.
He says,
they do all their deeds
merely to be seen
by others.
And what Jesus is saying
is that every religious system
in the world,
every moral philosophy
in the world
that is divorced
from a relationship
with Christ himself
is ultimately
going to become a burden
because it necessarily
becomes reduced
to rituals,
to performance,
to practices,
to duty.
Jesus says,
only as you marry me,
as you come into
a relationship with me,
do the things
I call you to
not become a heavy burden
but actually become
life-giving.
Friends,
is your Christianity
exhausting?
Does it wear you out?
Does being a Christian
feel like a burden
on your shoulders?
It means that,
if that's the case,
it means you've divorced it
from the person of Jesus.
Your faith in Christ
has merely become
a religion
and that is forever
going to be exhausting.
Jesus says,
come to me.
But do you know what?
The secular worldview
of our day
which promises rest
and hope and peace
is just as exhausting.
It's the ultimate
bait and switch.
Do you know that phrase,
bait and switch?
It's like,
when somebody baits you
with something,
they offer you something,
this golden carrot
and then as you take it,
they switch it
with something else,
right?
They say,
buy this house
and,
or they advertise
like this beach holiday
and all food and beverages
are included
and you go on the beach holiday
and you find
it's like half a star restaurant,
the food is off,
it's the ultimate
bait and switch.
They seduce you
with a bait
and then they switch
it with something else.
Friends,
every,
our culture,
the secular cultures
of our age
promise us rest
in a thousand ways
but in the end
they're exhausting,
they're wearisome.
Friends,
how many of us
are weighed down
with exhaustion
trying to prove ourselves,
trying to be someone great,
trying to prove
whether to our parents
or ourselves
that we're not a failure,
that we're somebody,
that we've got the goods,
that we can make the great.
I plunged myself
into those lovely
created things
which you made
but those lovely things
kept me far from you.
Tim Keller said it like this,
in ancient times
the gods were bloodthirsty
and hard to please.
Even today
they still are.
Friends,
isn't that why
in Hong Kong
we all work
such exceedingly long hours,
always taking on
more projects,
always taking on
more assignments,
always taking on
more work?
Friends,
isn't that why
how many of us
live under the constant
yoke of people's expectations,
whether it's our boss
or our parents
or Facebook
or Instagram?
Friends,
how many of us
work harder and harder
at school projects
and assignments
and we're so overwhelmed
we carry this burden
trying to prove ourselves,
whether to our parents
or our peers
or to ourselves,
that we're somebody,
that we've got the goods?
Friends,
isn't that why
we find it so hard
to say no?
In ancient times
the gods were bloodthirsty
and hard to please.
Even today
they still are.
And Jesus says
that if you want
to find life,
if you want to find
the rest that He promises,
the way to do it
is to actually
give up your life.
You've got to abandon
all those other things
that you've yoked yourself to.
You've got to abandon
those other things
that you've surrendered
yourself to.
If you truly want
to be free,
you have to surrender
your autonomy
to His authority.
You've got to join yourself,
so join yourself
that you're actually
at His mercy.
And that's a remarkable
claim.
Now here's the question.
Why should we trust Him?
What Jesus is calling us
to here is radically
significant.
He says the only way
you're going to find
the rest that you long for
is to actually die
to yourself
and to come to Him,
to surrender yourself
to His yoke,
to His experience.
If you really want
to find the life-transforming
grace that He promises,
Jesus doesn't say
come and drop coins
in the offering
or go on a homely
pilgrimage to Israel
or join a siege.
He says you've got
to abandon yourself
to those things
that you've yoked
yourself to
and you've got
to come to Me.
Why should we trust Him?
Why should we do that?
Well, as we come to close,
I want to give us
three simple reasons.
Three reasons
why you can trust Jesus.
The first is this,
because He knows you
the best.
Look at what He says here
in verse 27.
Jesus says,
All things have been
handed over to Me
by My Father.
Another way of saying
that is all authority
in all the world
belongs to Me.
And Jesus says,
Nobody knows the Father
like Me
and nobody knows Me
like the Father.
What's Jesus saying there?
Jesus is saying
that I have existed
from eternity past
to eternity in the future.
I know you better
than yourself.
I know everything about you.
If there's one person
you can trust,
you can trust Me.
Friends,
have you ever bought
a new gadget
or appliance?
What does it always
come with?
It comes with instructions,
right?
And there's always
a little line that says,
For best results,
follow the maker's instructions.
Is that right?
Okay.
Maybe not your appliances.
And what is the problem
with most guys?
We throw the instructions away
and say,
I know how this thing works.
And our wives
are always looking
off the instructions
and helping us
when we get it wrong,
right?
How many have ever
tried to build
an Ikea cabinet
or cupboard
and you say,
There it is, love.
It looks great.
And she opens the door
and you realize
you put the door
in the wrong way
or something like that,
right?
For best results,
follow the maker's instructions.
Jesus is saying here,
I am the maker.
I'm the one who made you.
I know you the best.
If you really want
to find life,
you've got to come to me.
I don't know
if you've ever been
in a situation
where you've heard kids,
little kids,
having a conversation.
It's very funny,
right?
And sometimes you'll hear
a kid, let's say,
four years old
and one kid will say,
My dad's car
can drive
the speed of light.
And another kid says,
My dad's car
can drive
as fast as lightning.
And this kid will say,
My dad's car
can fly to America.
And the next kid will say,
Well, my dad's car
can fly to the moon,
right?
And they're kind of like
all these exaggerated things.
And some of them
even believe it.
I remember when I was a kid,
I had a friend
in kindergarten
that pointed to a car
and said,
You see that car?
It's called a ninja car.
It can fly.
And I totally believed him.
Friends,
every system of the world
is making radical claims
like that.
You want true rest?
Buy that holiday home.
You want true rest?
Put your kids
in this university.
You want true rest?
Invest in this vehicle.
You want true rest?
The rest that your heart
is longing for?
Buy this gadget.
Friends,
all of it is like
kids in the dark.
They don't know
what they're talking about.
But Jesus comes along
and he says,
I know you the best
and I love you the most.
And I was there at creation
and I know what's good for you.
You can trust me.
Remember what Augustine said?
Our hearts were made for you
and will always be restless
until they find their rest in you.
Friends,
how can you trust him?
Jesus is not just one
of a plethora of kids
in the car
making these radical,
ridiculous claims.
Jesus is the one
who knows you the best
and he knows what your heart
is made to function on.
Here's another reason
why I can trust him.
Because of the cross.
Jesus comes to us
and he says,
take my yoke upon you
and you'll find rest
for your souls.
And sometimes that can feel
like we're dying inside.
But friends,
Jesus doesn't ask us
to die ultimately.
He asks us to die
to ourselves
because he says,
in that place
you'll find true life.
How do we know
that he's true?
Because Jesus
really did die for us.
Jesus didn't just
put on his shoulders
a yoke,
a work instrument.
Jesus put on his shoulders
an instrument of death.
The yoke that oxen
put on his shoulders
is an instrument of work.
Jesus put on himself
the instrument of death.
He put on himself
the rugged cross.
And he said,
I'll go to the cross.
I'll die for you
so that when I say
you come and follow me,
it might feel like death
but actually
it's the way to life.
Jesus died,
friends,
that we can experience
true life.
Martin O'Jones
used to say it like this.
He said,
you'll never experience
peace of God
until you're at peace
with God.
You'll never experience
the peace,
the rest that God
promises you
until you've come
to peace with God.
In other words,
until you die to yourself
and you experience
the life that Jesus
wants for you.
But here's the final thing.
And this is
a couple of minutes.
Why should we trust Jesus?
Jesus
because of who he is.
Look at what he says here
in verse,
actually I'll read
the whole thing.
Jesus says,
come to me
you who are weary
and heavy laden,
I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you
and learn from me
and then he has to keep it.
For I am gentle
and lowly in heart
and you will find rest
for your souls.
Many Bible commentators
have noted
that this is the only verse
in the Bible
where Jesus tells us
what his heart is like.
Only verse in the Bible
where Jesus reveals
his own heart.
He says,
this is what my heart is like.
Dane Autlan says
that the one place
in scripture
where the Son of God
peels back the veil
and lets us peer down
into the deepest recesses
of his heart,
what we find
is that Jesus
is not austere
and severe in heart.
Jesus is not high
and dignified in heart.
The one place
where Jesus
peers back the veil
and invites us
to peer into
his very heart,
the depths of his heart,
what we discover
is that Jesus
is gentle
and lowly
in heart.
The word gentle
means meek
and meekness
means constrained strength.
Strength
that has been constrained
that you experience
gentleness.
When Jesus says
he is lowly,
lowly means
of humble origins,
of humble,
of low social status.
What Jesus is saying here
is that there is nobody
who is not good enough,
not rich enough,
not strong enough,
not educated enough,
not religious enough
to come to me.
Jesus says,
I'm not one step
above anybody else.
I have so lowed myself,
so humbled myself,
so taken on
the nature of a servant
that anybody,
no matter what your status,
your bank account,
your ethnicity,
no matter what anybody
in culture or society
says about you,
you can come to me
and I will not reject you.
You come to me
with your sin,
I won't reject you.
You come to me
broken and weary,
I'm here for you.
You come to me
exhausted and worn out,
I'm here for you.
I'm lowly
and gentle in heart.
Now friends,
of course,
that doesn't mean
that Jesus is weak.
Look at what he says
in verse 27.
All authority
has been given to me.
Jesus Christ,
the Son of God,
the one who is
seated on the right hand
to God the Father
in the glory of heaven,
clothed with glory,
the one who Revelation
says his eyes
are like fire,
they pierce to our hearts.
Revelation says
out of his sword
comes a mouth,
his word cuts to our hearts.
Revelation says
that Jesus is the captain
of the armies of heaven
and one day
he will come
and he will vanquish
and destroy his enemies.
Psalm 18 says this,
to the merciful
you are merciful,
but to the crooked
you seem torturous.
Jesus is not weak
by any stretch
of the imagination.
As tender
as his mercy
is towards those
who come to him,
so severe
will his judgment
be to those
who reject him.
So when Jesus says
I am gentle
and lowly,
he doesn't mean
weak and frothy
or light and weak.
But for those
who come to him,
to those who do not
refuse him,
to those who yield
to him and surrender
to him,
friends,
we will find
that even our worst sins,
even our greatest failings,
even our moment
of greatest insecurity,
even our supreme
weakness
and doubts
and anxiety
will never drain
or deplete
or limit
or exhaust
his tenderness,
his gentleness,
his mercy
and his rest
for those
who come to him.
Friends,
when you think of Jesus,
what comes to mind?
Dane Orton
says it like this,
Jesus is not trigger happy.
He's not harsh
and reactionary.
He's not easily
exasperated.
I was thinking about it
this way,
this week.
Can I make a confession?
I get easily
exasperated.
Jesus does not
get easily
exasperated.
The posture
most natural
to Jesus
is not a pointed finger
pointing out
your faults,
but open arms
saying,
come to me.
Gentleness
is not one way
Jesus occasionally
acts towards people,
towards those
that have got it together.
Gentleness
is who he is.
It is his very heart.
Friends,
when we come to Jesus
exhausted
and worn out,
weary and anxious,
Jesus doesn't hold
his nose at us.
Jesus doesn't say,
let me put on the latex gloves
and I'll deal with you.
Jesus doesn't sanitize his hands
or ask us to sanitize our hands.
Jesus comes
with the most
welcoming of open braces
and says,
come to me,
you who are weary
and heavy laden
and I will give you rest.
Friends,
can you take him up on it?
Let me ask you finally,
how heavy is the junk
that you're carrying
on your back?
Seriously,
the things that we look to
and trust
and how heavy
are those things?
Have any of those things
given us rest?
Friends,
have sexual relations
given us rest?
Friends,
have all sorts of relationships
that kill a boyfriend,
that kill a girlfriend.
Have those things
really given our heart rest?
What about the things
that we buy?
That holiday home,
that home entertainment system,
that new watch.
Have those things
really given us rest?
Friends,
what about that
first class honors?
That straight A grade?
100%.
Have those things
given your heart rest?
Friends,
Jesus Christ,
the sovereign God
of all creation,
he makes a radical claim.
He asks you to come
and take his burden.
Following Jesus
is the hardest thing
you'll ever do.
There's a yoke to embrace.
You must submit
to his authority.
You must surrender
to his ways.
But I'll tell you this,
it works.
Jesus gives you rest
that nothing in this world
will give you.
He brings rest
to every human being.
The rest that only comes
by being in right relationship
with him.
Let's pray together.
Oh, sovereign Lord,
wonderful maker,
magnificent God,
gentle and lowly king.
God, we come to you
this morning
because we know
that in you
our hearts truly find rest.
We come to you
this morning
because as we sang earlier,
God, we need you.
Every hour,
we need you.
Father God,
so many of us
have,
like Augustine,
God looked in a thousand places
to all the lovely things
that you've created
for the rest
that can only be found in you.
And God,
our souls are
exhausted.
Our souls are depleted.
Jesus,
we come to you
this morning.
Come and give us your rest,
we pray.
Father God,
as we come to you
in confession
and repentance,
as we come to you
in faith,
won't you match
our simple faith
with your magnificent
bounding leaps of grace.
Come and have your way,
we pray.
Amen.