The Recipe for Rest Matthew 11:28-30 One of the most frustrating things to me is a bad Wi- Fi connection. I realize this does not apply to everyone and not many can relate to that but it just bugs me. Because of the bad Wi- Fi connection it usually makes the internet you are using very slow. As I said, this is usually just a problem people in my generation have issue with. A bad Wi- Fi connection can be the cause of a many things, but one of the most common is the distance you are from your router. It only makes sense, right? The closer you are to the router (or the source), the better the connection will be. This is equally frustrating when I go on vacation and my hotel room is really far away from the router. I know its trivial but it is something that just frustrates me! The further away from the source you are, the worse the signal. This is true of other things, too. Think of sonar. As the sonar gets closer to the object in the water, the reading will be much stronger and clearer. Or think of this: have you ever heard a sound in another room of your house, maybe a smoke alarm or timer going off, and you had to walk toward it to figure out where it was coming from? There are numerous examples of having to find the source of something to really understand more of what s going on. That s why in school when students are tasked with writing a research paper, they can t use Wikipedia as a source. Wikipedia can be edited and manipulated to cloud the truth. When you want to know something first hand, you have to go to the source. It should be no surprise to us, then, that Jesus tells us the same thing. If we want to experience all the things that Jesus offers us, we must be come close to Him. He offers us forgiveness, hope, love, and rest just to name a few. Today, we will be
looking at the recipe for rest that Jesus offers us. Jesus tells us three ingredients we need in order to find rest. Jesus tells us we need to come to Him, that we need to surrender to Him, and finally that we need to experience Him in order to find rest. Let s turn to Matthew 11:28-30. Come to Jesus (V.28) In verse 28, Jesus tells all who are weary to come to Him. This is the first ingredient in our recipe for rest. It is such a comforting thought to know the Lord of the Universe invites us to come to Him. This invitation is open to all. It is not limited to a few; this invitation is open to everyone. It doesn t matter if you re Baptist, Methodist, Calvinist, Armenianist, white, or black; we are all in need of rest. He is also telling us to come to Him, not anything else. Not the law, not the prophets; we are to come to Jesus. There is nothing else that will truly offer us the rest that we desire. We cannot turn to work, money, our spouse or significant other, technology, or anything else to give us the rest that we need. We tend to turn to those things when things get hard. You ve heard of people drowning their sorrows or over eating. This is their way to try and deal with the hardships that life has brought them. We will always fail when we try to replace the grace that Jesus offers with more work on our part. Think of the people that Jesus is telling these things to: a group of Jewish people who are feeling the weight of the Law and rules that they cannot uphold. David Platt says: Many of these laws had come from God in the Old Testament, while others had been added by religious teachers of the day. In Matthew 23:4 Jesus says that these religious teachers tie up heavy loads that
are hard to carry and put them on people s shoulders, but they themselves aren t willing to lift a finger to move them. In contrast, Jesus calls the weary and burdened to come to Him. This is Christianity explained: we give Him the full weight of our sin. 1 Jesus is telling us that we cannot do this thing on our own. We cannot live this Christian life without His help. This word means hard work, i.e., toil 2. Doesn t that perfectly describe how we live our lives sometimes? We think we have to work to earn rest but it is just the opposite: Christ tells us that we don t have to work all we have to do is come to Him. When we think of coming to Him, we have to leave the old way of living behind. When we come to Jesus, we should come as the little children He mentioned in verse 25. I think He is talking about the way in which we are to approach Him. Children come to Him humbly and reverently, unlike the wise and understanding who are the religious leaders of that day who come to Jesus with an agenda. They were trying to trap Jesus or not listen fully to what He was saying to them. They were trying to add laws to make themselves feel better; or make others feel worse. They were the legalists who put themselves in the place of God to determine who was worthy to receive the gospel. They were hard hearted and thought they knew all the answers. The problem was that Jesus wasn t concerned about their answers. Jesus wasn t concerned about their works. He didn t care how much they tried to earn it by going to the temple to sacrifice. He didn t care how much money they gave. He cared about their heart. Were they 1 Platt, D. Exalting Jesus in Matthew (p. 152). 2 Mills, M. S. (1999). The Life of Christ: A Study Guide to the Gospel Record. Dallas, TX: 3E Ministries.
coming to do these things because they had to check off a box? Were they coming to do these things because that s what good Jews did? Jesus is the same way today. You can try and take care of the burden you are carrying on your own by giving more in church or coming every time the doors are open but let me very clear on something: all of that is pointless if your heart is wrong. Don t misunderstand me: I m not saying, Get right and then come to Jesus because that statement is contradictory. You cannot get right without Jesus. What I am saying is this: if you are coming to Jesus with a hard heart you will not find what you are looking for. You have to come to Jesus humbly and on your face! He is our Abba Father. The closest translation to that word is daddy. He loves each and every one of us and that is why He invites us to come to Him. Coming to Jesus is just the first ingredient of the recipe. The second ingredient is that after we come to Jesus, we must surrender to Him. SURRENDER TO JESUS (v.29) This idea of a yoke is significant. A yoke is a big wooden device that would go over the necks of one or two oxen as they were plowing a field. Again I will quote Platt, In a shared yoke, one of the oxen would often be much stronger than the other. The stronger ox was more schooled in the commands of the master and so it would guide the other according to the master s commands. By coming into the yoke with the stronger ox, the weaker could learn to obey the master s voice. 3 Isn t that fascinating? The imagery that Jesus uses here is beautiful. He is telling us to 3 Platt, D. Exalting Jesus in Matthew (p. 152).
take His yoke upon us because He is the stronger one. He knows we are weak and He is inviting us to come and take. By taking His yoke upon us, we are surrendering ourselves to His direction and leading. We follow Him where He leads us. If you think of two oxen plowing a field you wouldn t think of the weaker one influencing or leading the other one. That is why the bible tells us not to yoked with an unbeliever. Being yoked with an unbeliever spans both marriage friendships, but especially marriage. When we are yoked together with someone who doesn't have the same values as us, it is much easier for them to influence us than it is for us to influence them. Doesn t it seem odd that Jesus tells the weary to take on something else? Well it would until you realize who is telling you. Christ s yoke isn t the same as ours. We are already yoked before we come to Jesus, just yoked by sin. When we come to Christ, we are to take off that yoke and put on the lighter one of Christ s. It s not a matter of putting something else on; it is a matter of whose you are putting on. 4 Jesus yoke is not lighter because he demands less (5:20), but because he bears more of the load with the burdened (23:4; cf. 1 Jn 5:3). In contrast to unconcerned religious teachers who prided themselves on their own position (23:4 7; 24:49), Jesus was going to lay down his life for the sheep (20:25 28). 5 We are to take on His yoke and learn from Him. The word learn is similar to the word used in the Great Commission as to make disciples. So Christ is 4 Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume. Peabody: Hendrickson. 5 Keener, C. S. (2009). The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio- Rhetorical Commentary (p. 349). Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
essentially saying, Learn from me what it means to be my disciple. 6 Last Sunday night after church we went to Wendy s. As we were sitting there with Charlotte we were talking to her and having a good time. With football season approaching and after telling Whitney that I want to make a trip to Knoxville this fall to watch a game, we start saying football terms to Charlotte. She has this habit of taking her hands and raising them up in the air and she did that and I said Touchdown! Charlotte has been picking up on words here and there like bah- bah for bottle, diapey for diaper, and apparently Doc McStuffins. Well we keep taking her arms and raising them up and saying touchdown and she s laughing and we are loving it. I just so happen to have my phone out when this happens. You guys, my daughter said touchdown and I have the proof! She s going to be a football fan if I have anything to do with it. My point is this: she wouldn t have known to say touchdown had we not been showing her and teaching her how to. If football is the only thing Charlotte learns from me then my job as a father would be a failure. I have to show her the love of Christ and the ways of Christ, but I cannot do that if I m not myself surrendered and submitted to Christ. I have to be submitted to Jesus in order to show my daughter what it means to be submitted to Jesus. You have to do the same thing for your children. They will imitate you. They will find importance in what you find importance. If you are not exhibiting Christ like qualities at home, why would they? If you don t find coming to church important, why would they? If you are not submitted to Christ, why would they? 6 Platt, D. Exalting Jesus in Matthew (p. 152).
Some have a problem with submission and treat it as something that it isn t. Submission is not bad! There is beauty in submission and the beauty in this submission is that we can learn directly from the master Himself. The beauty is also that not only do have the Master teaching us His ways, but we also have some help with the burden of our sin! Christ can comfort us when we need it, help us, give us guidance, give us peace, motivate us, and most of all love us. We need to learn how to be a disciple of Jesus so that we can help lead others to take the yoke that Jesus offers. The recipe is almost complete. The first two ingredients are in place when we come to Jesus and surrender to Him. The last ingredient is that of experiencing Jesus. EXPERIENCE JESUS (v. 30) One thing that we must remember is Jesus did not escape the hard life, but he could experience rest and refreshment in its midst. Christians are not promised freedom from illness or calamity, but they may experience God s sustaining grace so that they are not crushed or driven to despair (2 Cor 4:8 9). 7 Because we are offered rest does not mean that we will never experience hurt or hardships again. The difference is that when we experience Jesus, He takes the burden and makes it easier on us. Listen to how Matthew Henry describes the yoke of Christ: The yoke of Christ s commands is an easy yoke; it is chrēstos, not only easy, but gracious, so the word signifies; it is sweet and pleasant; there is nothing in it to gall the yielding neck, nothing to hurt us, but, on the contrary, must to refresh us. It is a yoke that is lined with love. Such is the nature of all Christ s commands, so reasonable in themselves, so profitable to us, and all summed up in one word, and that a sweet 7 Blomberg, C. (1992). Matthew (Vol. 22, p. 194). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
word, love. So powerful are the assistances he gives us, so suitable the encouragements, and so strong the consolations, that are to be found in the way of duty, that we may truly say, it is a yoke of pleasantness. It is easy to the new nature, very easy to him that understandeth, Prov. 14:6. It may be a little hard at first, but it is easy afterwards; the love of God and the hope of heaven will make it easy. 8 Likewise, Christ s burden is light. It is light because Christ does all the heavy lifting. Christ took our full burden of sin and bore it on the cross. His burden is light in contrast to Israel s religious leadership 9. The religious people were always putting more and more rules on sanctification and worship and what it means to come to God. Christ is inviting you to come this morning and take a load off. CONCLUSION Do you wonder why He said His yoke is easy and burden light? It is because He is doing all the heavy lifting! When we come to Jesus and experience Him fully, we can take His light burden because He will take the punishment for our sins. If we are honest, that is the real burden that we all carry. It is some form of sin. Lust, pride, gossip, anger, bitterness there are people in this room right now who are struggling with these very things. The longer you carry them around, the harder life will be. The best thing to do is let Christ take the load from you. Christian, maybe you re here and you are carrying the burden of keeping up appearances and acting like everything is ok when deep down something is eating at your spirit. I was praying the other night and had something that was really burdening me. It was something that was lying heavy on my heart and it was threatening to 8 Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 1670). Peabody: Hendrickson. 9 Barry, J. D., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Mangum, D., & Whitehead, M. M. (2012). Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
keep me awake. As I was praying it was as if God said, Aren t you preaching about giving Me your burdens this weekend? It was one of those holy moments that God really humbled me. I gave what was bothering me to Him and I immediately felt better. You see there was no way that I could have handled it on my own. There is no way you can carry your burdens either. If you have never let the love of Christ flood your life and you are lost, today is the day of salvation because there is no greater burden than carrying around a sinful heart. You know the feeling. You are miserable and know that God is calling you to Him and to surrender to Jesus so that you can experience Him fully but you are holding back. Jesus offers himself and promises rest. He promises freedom from sin s burden under his own yoke. His call is not to the strong and self- sufficient, but to the weak and the weary. 10 Today there are some here who are weak and weary. In a moment we are going to have an invitation. If you are weak and weary from carrying around your sin, no matter what it is, come, surrender, and experience Jesus. 10 Campbell, I. D. (2008). Opening up Matthew (p. 71). Leominster: Day One Publications.