WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.660 So let's now read. We're going to read from Matthew chapter 11. 00:00:08.259 --> 00:00:15.960 We're going to read from verse 1 to 6 and then verse 25 to 30. 00:00:17.080 --> 00:00:20.820 So let's hear these words of God together. 00:00:20.820 --> 00:00:34.079 After Jesus had finished instructing his 12 disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee. 00:00:34.659 --> 00:00:40.719 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, 00:00:40.719 --> 00:00:44.859 Are you the one who is to come or should we expect someone else? 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:46.439 Jesus replied, 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:50.039 Go back and report to John what you hear and see. 00:00:50.500 --> 00:01:00.679 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:05.759 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me. 00:01:06.420 --> 00:01:08.120 And then at verse 25, 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:10.340 At that time Jesus said, 00:01:10.340 --> 00:01:39.560 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 00:01:39.560 --> 00:01:49.359 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. 00:01:49.859 --> 00:01:55.320 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. 00:01:56.500 --> 00:01:57.099 Amen. 00:01:57.219 --> 00:02:07.000 This is God's word, a word that reveals to us the heart of Jesus, maybe the surprising heart of Jesus. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:16.099 Here is the one time in the Gospels, Jesus reveals his core, his heart, that inner part of himself that drives what he does and who he is. 00:02:16.120 --> 00:02:16.819 And what does he say? 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:17.240 He says, 00:02:17.620 --> 00:02:21.319 I am gentle and humble in heart. 00:02:21.419 --> 00:02:26.300 Having just claimed once again to be the centre of God's revelation, 00:02:26.300 --> 00:02:32.320 what shines through is his gracious invitation and his mercy. 00:02:33.160 --> 00:02:34.880 Goes against expectations. 00:02:35.700 --> 00:02:41.200 And when we think of people with great power, we tend to think of those who are untouchable, 00:02:41.500 --> 00:02:43.900 those who stand above it all. 00:02:45.100 --> 00:02:48.800 Maybe we've seen that in a boss or we recognise it in a politician. 00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:58.840 And this presentation of Jesus' own character goes against maybe the caricatures of God that we can build up. 00:02:59.880 --> 00:03:03.840 A God who is angry and judgmental. 00:03:03.960 --> 00:03:06.240 A God who is uncaring. 00:03:07.200 --> 00:03:12.020 A God who, while he may love us, in a sense he puts up with us. 00:03:12.020 --> 00:03:20.080 You know, he loves his children but he's disappointed and grudgingly puts up with us. 00:03:20.700 --> 00:03:24.439 And it's not at all the picture that Jesus presents to us. 00:03:24.500 --> 00:03:28.620 And so here is hope for us today from Jesus. 00:03:29.640 --> 00:03:37.540 There is in this an invitation from Jesus for all of us today who are weary, 00:03:37.539 --> 00:03:41.759 who are downtrodden, who are suffering in any kind of way. 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:49.259 And here is Jesus' heart for all sufferers, for all sinners. 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:57.639 Presenting himself as the one who can give hope and rest and life. 00:03:58.419 --> 00:04:00.699 So let's think about his words together. 00:04:00.819 --> 00:04:04.979 First of all, let's think about that invitation of Jesus in verse 28. 00:04:04.979 --> 00:04:08.280 We read, come to me. 00:04:09.179 --> 00:04:13.879 Now this is a bold and unique statement when we get under the surface. 00:04:14.839 --> 00:04:20.879 Unlike any other religious teacher, Jesus isn't saying, go to God to find rest. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:23.699 Jesus is saying, come to me. 00:04:24.500 --> 00:04:31.159 And that ties in with the self-portrait that Jesus has been painting of himself in Matthew chapter 11. 00:04:31.160 --> 00:04:38.680 So we read of John the Baptist who had been sent to prepare the way for Jesus. 00:04:38.680 --> 00:04:43.000 Now he's in prison and he just wants to make sure, is Jesus the Messiah? 00:04:43.660 --> 00:04:47.760 And Jesus gives that reassurance, making clear to John, yes, I am the Messiah. 00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:52.340 I have come doing the works of God with the authority of God. 00:04:52.400 --> 00:04:55.000 But did you notice how he proves that? 00:04:55.000 --> 00:05:01.120 He proves it in that he shows that as Messiah, he comes for those who are typically excluded. 00:05:01.899 --> 00:05:05.279 Those who would typically be forgotten and marginalised. 00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:08.319 Those who would be regarded as unclean. 00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:11.660 He comes for the weak, the vulnerable, the poor. 00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:16.360 For the blind, the lame, the leper, the deaf, the dead, the poor. 00:05:16.360 --> 00:05:29.860 Jesus turns power on its head because he uses all the power and authority that he has from God as God for the weak. 00:05:30.920 --> 00:05:33.139 And to extend mercy. 00:05:34.780 --> 00:05:40.180 Rebecca McLaughlin has written an excellent book called Confronting Christianity. 00:05:40.180 --> 00:05:48.040 Which has been really helpful actually in preparing for our big questions series coming up next week. 00:05:48.040 --> 00:05:56.100 And she tells in that book the story of a genetics professor in Cornell University who was a convert from Hinduism. 00:05:56.960 --> 00:06:02.340 And he began to explore other world faiths and eventually came to explore Christianity. 00:06:02.339 --> 00:06:12.179 And he talked about finding the power inversion of Jesus compelling compared to superhero Krishna. 00:06:13.219 --> 00:06:19.519 Jesus had all power but he used it to extend mercy to others. 00:06:20.799 --> 00:06:22.919 It's the pattern of Jesus' life. 00:06:23.259 --> 00:06:25.219 It's the plan of God. 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:30.339 Jesus left heaven and came born in an unimportant town. 00:06:30.339 --> 00:06:38.779 Born to a poor family, to a teenage mother, to a people, the Jewish people who were oppressed by the Romans. 00:06:40.699 --> 00:06:49.079 And in Jesus' mission he would carry that out by saving people through suffering. 00:06:49.079 --> 00:07:00.419 Though he is the son of God with all power, he would bear shame and suffer and die to forgive sin and to give new life. 00:07:00.500 --> 00:07:05.219 The son of God enters into our suffering. 00:07:07.500 --> 00:07:16.539 And Jesus also gives us a portrait of himself in the prayer that he makes to his father just before this invitation. 00:07:16.540 --> 00:07:24.020 He makes plain in that prayer that the way to God, the way to know God is not through human wisdom. 00:07:25.460 --> 00:07:29.340 There are things hidden from the wise and learned and revealed to little children. 00:07:30.180 --> 00:07:35.580 The kingdom of God isn't about human intellect, human endeavour and achievement. 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:40.660 The kingdom of God involves seeing and trusting that Jesus is Lord and King. 00:07:40.660 --> 00:07:44.820 Jesus will say he has all knowledge. 00:07:44.920 --> 00:07:47.520 He is the one who knows and reveals the father. 00:07:47.980 --> 00:07:49.520 He alone can do that. 00:07:50.260 --> 00:07:54.660 There are other teachers of the law in Jesus' day who claim that they do that, but they don't. 00:07:56.740 --> 00:08:02.320 Jesus will say that he is the father's representative on the earth. 00:08:02.319 --> 00:08:07.120 All things have been committed to Jesus the son by the father. 00:08:07.219 --> 00:08:11.019 So he stands in the closest possible relationship to God. 00:08:11.240 --> 00:08:15.199 And it's this one who says, come to me. 00:08:15.939 --> 00:08:18.659 It's a wonderfully loaded statement. 00:08:19.939 --> 00:08:24.120 Come to the one who is God's appointed saviour. 00:08:24.120 --> 00:08:33.460 The one who is the son of God, who reveals God to us, reveals the way of salvation in and through himself. 00:08:33.580 --> 00:08:39.519 But this one, he doesn't fold his arms when he sees suffering. 00:08:40.500 --> 00:08:46.679 Nor does he hire a team of bodyguards to keep people at arm's length so he can glide on through life. 00:08:47.799 --> 00:08:52.820 Nor does he claim for himself a life of luxury and ease. 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:57.899 No, this is the Jesus of Isaiah's prophecy. 00:08:58.860 --> 00:09:03.360 In Isaiah 53, we read of the suffering servant. 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:15.899 And Jesus, as it were, he bundles up the whole range of human misery within that sickness, sorrow, sin, guilt, suffering and death. 00:09:16.679 --> 00:09:21.620 And he takes it as he becomes one of us and he carries it to the cross. 00:09:21.620 --> 00:09:29.399 So that we understand it is the nail scarred hands of the son of God that beckon us. 00:09:30.019 --> 00:09:30.960 Come to me. 00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:33.940 Come home to the father. 00:09:33.940 --> 00:09:40.960 So it's a wonderful invitation and it's an invitation that comes from the heart of Jesus. 00:09:41.080 --> 00:09:45.220 So let's think briefly about the heart of Jesus as it's displayed for us here. 00:09:45.320 --> 00:09:48.660 Two ways that Jesus lays bare his heart for us. 00:09:48.740 --> 00:09:52.160 One, in who he offers himself to. 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:54.159 So again, verse 28. 00:09:55.159 --> 00:09:59.439 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened. 00:09:59.799 --> 00:10:01.319 That's all without exception. 00:10:02.439 --> 00:10:07.339 Every weak, downtrodden, frustrated, anxious, despairing person among us. 00:10:07.399 --> 00:10:10.339 We need to hear this invitation from Jesus. 00:10:10.340 --> 00:10:16.600 And notice that Jesus doesn't say, you can come to me once you've cleaned yourself up. 00:10:17.220 --> 00:10:22.240 You can come to me once you've sorted yourself out and made yourself respectable and dealt with your burdens. 00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:26.120 No, it's our burden that qualifies us to come to him. 00:10:27.740 --> 00:10:32.019 He is the one who offers to carry the burdens, not that we would deal with it ourselves. 00:10:32.019 --> 00:10:38.439 Now, this would have been particularly good news for the listeners in Jesus' own day. 00:10:38.539 --> 00:10:49.799 The weary of Jesus' day, in particular, were those who stood under the teaching of the religious leaders and the Pharisees. 00:10:50.779 --> 00:10:54.720 You know, you get that controversy and conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees. 00:10:54.720 --> 00:11:02.279 So these Pharisees, Jesus said, were laying heavy burdens on the people and they themselves weren't willing to lift a finger to help. 00:11:03.180 --> 00:11:07.779 We get a sense of what they were like even in the next chapter, Matthew 12. 00:11:08.340 --> 00:11:11.660 These Pharisees would judge the disciples for eating grain on the Sabbath. 00:11:12.360 --> 00:11:15.759 They would judge Jesus for showing mercy and healing someone on the Sabbath. 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:21.200 They were people who piled rule upon rule, law upon law, upon the people to say, 00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:26.320 if you want to get to God, you need to follow our rules and our standards. 00:11:27.400 --> 00:11:34.820 And so the people were weary from extra layers of law, human law of do and do and do. 00:11:36.440 --> 00:11:47.660 To follow that way was to follow an exhausting path from a misguided leader heading nowhere. 00:11:47.659 --> 00:11:58.939 Makes me think of the time, ironically enough, a theology professor was leading a group of us on a short hike. 00:11:59.799 --> 00:12:01.779 We'd already gone up a mountain. We're coming back down. 00:12:01.860 --> 00:12:03.500 Mounted is a hill, really. It was just a hill. 00:12:04.839 --> 00:12:08.339 And he decided he could find an alternative way for us. 00:12:08.379 --> 00:12:10.719 Fine, let's do that. It was a nice day. 00:12:11.339 --> 00:12:15.259 Then a couple of hours later, the clouds opened and it's torrential rain. 00:12:15.259 --> 00:12:22.980 And hours later, about like forever, there was that sense among the group, are we ever getting home? 00:12:24.319 --> 00:12:25.879 He just didn't know the way. 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:28.860 We'd chosen the wrong guide. 00:12:30.340 --> 00:12:34.100 Jesus teaches a different way to the way of the Pharisees. 00:12:34.819 --> 00:12:36.000 Not the way of do, do, do. 00:12:36.580 --> 00:12:38.100 His is the way of grace. 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:42.200 His is the way of it is done. 00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:50.980 Our trust and our hope rests on the work of Jesus in his perfect life and his sacrificial death to pay for our sin. 00:12:51.420 --> 00:12:53.660 Not on our own ability to please God. 00:12:54.700 --> 00:12:56.660 And Jesus leads us on a different path. 00:12:57.879 --> 00:13:01.780 In fact, Jesus will say, I am the way, the truth and the life. 00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:03.700 No one comes to the Father except through me. 00:13:03.700 --> 00:13:06.020 His is the way. 00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:07.460 He is the life. 00:13:07.560 --> 00:13:12.420 He is the one that we must come to to have that freedom of knowing and enjoying life with God. 00:13:14.420 --> 00:13:16.620 What makes you weary today? 00:13:17.720 --> 00:13:20.680 All of us will have different answers to that question. 00:13:21.280 --> 00:13:24.500 Maybe for some of us, we're weary from trying to prove ourselves. 00:13:24.500 --> 00:13:33.399 That might be in the context of religion or it might be in your family or your workplace, in your educational setting. 00:13:33.940 --> 00:13:39.480 You might be weary from a weight of responsibility at family or at work. 00:13:40.220 --> 00:13:43.340 You may be weary because of the trials of life. 00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:46.460 Perhaps sorrow and grief has come. 00:13:46.460 --> 00:13:54.639 To all of us who are weary, the invitation from Jesus holds true. 00:13:55.220 --> 00:13:56.440 Come to me. 00:13:57.660 --> 00:13:58.840 Come to me. 00:13:59.280 --> 00:14:02.860 And find rest and find peace and find life. 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:04.519 Come to Jesus. 00:14:05.420 --> 00:14:10.980 Now he also shows us his heart in how he describes his own heart. 00:14:13.240 --> 00:14:14.840 In verse 29 he says, 00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:16.840 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. 00:14:16.940 --> 00:14:20.759 For I am gentle and humble in heart. 00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:25.560 Having just said, I am the centre of God's revelation. 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:29.820 You cannot know God the Father unless you know me, the Son of God. 00:14:30.180 --> 00:14:31.680 Now he says, I'm gentle and humble. 00:14:33.740 --> 00:14:35.440 What did that look like in Jesus' life? 00:14:35.480 --> 00:14:38.060 It looked like Jesus willingly taking the low place. 00:14:38.420 --> 00:14:44.540 As we're told in Philippians 2, he left the glory of heaven to come to the earth. 00:14:44.840 --> 00:14:48.780 To become one of us, to take the form of a servant. 00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:57.500 And to go so low that he would die in our place for our sins on the cross. 00:14:58.940 --> 00:15:05.500 Jesus' most natural posture is not the raised fist of anger. 00:15:05.500 --> 00:15:09.100 Not the pointed finger of judgment. 00:15:09.100 --> 00:15:17.320 It's the open arms of gracious, generous, gentle welcome. 00:15:17.320 --> 00:15:21.680 And this is not Jesus putting on a show. 00:15:22.800 --> 00:15:28.200 This is not a politician or a leader grabbing a photo op. 00:15:28.460 --> 00:15:30.120 You know, here's me, just one with the people. 00:15:30.740 --> 00:15:33.760 Jesus really is gentle and humble. 00:15:33.879 --> 00:15:35.540 He's saying this is core to who I am. 00:15:35.620 --> 00:15:37.000 This is core to my mission. 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:44.600 We have this wonderful truth placed together that Jesus is glorious God, revelation of God. 00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:48.820 And he is accessible and approachable. 00:15:49.799 --> 00:15:55.379 We have Jesus saying, I love to welcome sinners and sufferers. 00:15:55.480 --> 00:15:58.279 It was the pattern of his life then on earth. 00:15:58.679 --> 00:16:01.820 And he is the same Jesus in heaven. 00:16:01.919 --> 00:16:04.879 The same heart for sinners and sufferers today. 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:14.500 So to come to Jesus is to have in heaven a friend who is with you and for you. 00:16:15.259 --> 00:16:17.700 It's the heart of Jesus. 00:16:18.500 --> 00:16:25.259 And again, tied up to his heart and tied up to his invitation, there comes the promise of Jesus. 00:16:25.740 --> 00:16:29.159 We can see two aspects to this promise. 00:16:29.159 --> 00:16:35.620 He promises that if we come to him, my yoke is easy. 00:16:36.519 --> 00:16:43.959 Now, the yoke, it was a shoulder beam used when ploughing a field. 00:16:44.120 --> 00:16:52.860 You would put it across a couple of oxen so that they could plough, use the plough to get nice straight furrows. 00:16:52.860 --> 00:17:01.279 And that became then an imagery of working, but also an image for service. 00:17:02.700 --> 00:17:10.099 Jesus said, come to me, take my yoke and learn from me. 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:17.279 He's inviting us to himself to be a follower, to be a disciple, which is to be a learner of Jesus. 00:17:17.279 --> 00:17:21.839 But also to be a servant of Jesus. 00:17:22.379 --> 00:17:24.879 Now, he says, my yoke is easy. 00:17:24.980 --> 00:17:26.639 Is that easy? 00:17:27.259 --> 00:17:31.319 Well, on the one hand, maybe we'd want to say, no, it's not easy. 00:17:31.319 --> 00:17:37.980 Because Jesus certainly isn't less demanding, for example, in the ethic that he presents. 00:17:37.980 --> 00:17:46.079 You know, while the religious leaders created all kinds of human rules, Jesus went back to the Ten Commandments. 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:48.220 But he didn't just say, don't murder. 00:17:48.599 --> 00:17:52.420 He also thought about our thought lives and thought about our motives. 00:17:52.559 --> 00:17:55.819 And say, even if you're angry, you're breaking that commandment. 00:17:55.940 --> 00:17:59.920 So his ethics are certainly not less demanding. 00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:08.900 And he would also speak about the call to be a learner, a call to be a disciple, as a call to carry our cross daily, to be willing to die to self. 00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:10.240 So that's not easy. 00:18:10.340 --> 00:18:19.039 But on the other hand, his yoke is easy compared to what the Pharisees were offering. 00:18:19.140 --> 00:18:23.200 So the yoke was also an image of the law, taking up the yoke of the law. 00:18:23.840 --> 00:18:28.920 And for the Pharisees, they made that a really heavy burden because they'd added all these extra laws. 00:18:28.920 --> 00:18:32.840 Jesus replaces that with, come to me. 00:18:35.120 --> 00:18:44.019 Jesus, it reminds us that grace, God's free and loving kindness, comes before law and obedience. 00:18:44.840 --> 00:18:51.140 And that Jesus himself supplies the grace and the strength that we need for a life of obedience. 00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:54.060 And indeed, we partner with Jesus. 00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:58.259 He walks beside us as we seek to live for him. 00:18:58.920 --> 00:19:00.880 So that's easier. 00:19:02.160 --> 00:19:09.460 There's also a new basis for obedience, that basis of love. 00:19:10.100 --> 00:19:17.759 Jesus, who summarised the Old Testament law, saying it calls us to love the Lord our God with our heart, soul, mind and strength, 00:19:17.800 --> 00:19:21.000 and to love our neighbour as ourselves. 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:32.279 But that obedience is fuelled by, empowered by the love of God that comes to us in Jesus. 00:19:32.279 --> 00:19:41.839 And as we receive that self-giving, sacrificial love of Jesus, dying in our place, taking our sin and guilt, 00:19:42.099 --> 00:19:47.619 going under the just judgment of God in our place, then love for Jesus becomes easy. 00:19:47.619 --> 00:19:58.279 So obeying Jesus is much easier because we've got this love in our heart, much easier than your do-it-yourself religion of try, try, try. 00:19:58.579 --> 00:20:02.399 And you're trying to prove yourself to God. 00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:06.380 So Jesus promises, my yoke is easy. 00:20:06.900 --> 00:20:12.240 And he also promises, I will give you rest. 00:20:12.940 --> 00:20:15.519 And this is more than just a stopping of work. 00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:19.620 He says in verse 29, you will find rest for your souls. 00:20:19.700 --> 00:20:22.620 Here's the promise of deep soul rest. 00:20:22.619 --> 00:20:28.079 And here again, this is connecting to Jesus' identity as the Son of God. 00:20:28.199 --> 00:20:30.699 Because in the Bible, it's God who gives rest. 00:20:31.299 --> 00:20:40.759 We go back to the beginning of creation, Genesis 1 and 2, we find God on day 6 of creation making people, Adam and Eve. 00:20:40.759 --> 00:20:50.859 And then on day 7, God rests and God invites Adam and Eve to spend their first full day in this wonderful paradise, 00:20:50.859 --> 00:20:58.079 grace, enjoying Sabbath rest, having that freedom to enjoy and worship God in his world, 00:20:58.740 --> 00:21:06.019 made to enter into and to enjoy true rest of life in relationship with God. 00:21:06.740 --> 00:21:12.439 So that life of following Jesus, yes, it brings work, absolutely. 00:21:12.779 --> 00:21:19.059 We work at obedience, we work to love and serve others, but there's also wonderful rest attached. 00:21:19.059 --> 00:21:28.419 Rest knowing that our salvation, our life, our eternal life rests on the work of Jesus and not mine. 00:21:29.220 --> 00:21:35.139 So our identity and our hope is secure and out of that, we can rest and we can work. 00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:42.119 Knowing Jesus, we can also rest from the guilt of sin. 00:21:42.740 --> 00:21:47.559 Knowing that Jesus' work has secured my forgiveness. 00:21:47.559 --> 00:21:55.519 So I can confess my sin freely, knowing that I have been freely forgiven. 00:21:56.079 --> 00:21:58.440 So there is rest for a guilty conscience. 00:21:59.779 --> 00:22:07.279 And there is the rest of being brought into the limits that we were made to live within. 00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:13.940 Made to live under God's rule, to enjoy life with him, to enjoy his blessing. 00:22:13.940 --> 00:22:19.220 And there is rest when we come under those limits. 00:22:22.500 --> 00:22:26.339 So Jesus offers us good news. 00:22:26.339 --> 00:22:35.720 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:42.059 To the burned out and the stressed out, to the struggling and the weary and worried, 00:22:43.059 --> 00:22:49.059 Jesus invites you to rest as he invites you to himself. 00:22:49.059 --> 00:22:49.079 Amen. 00:22:49.139 --> 00:22:49.480 Amen. 00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:49.819 Amen. 00:22:50.220 --> 00:22:50.500 Thank you. 00:22:50.579 --> 00:22:50.960 Amen. 00:22:50.960 --> 00:22:51.319 Amen. 00:22:53.700 --> 00:22:54.059 Amen.