Disciples for Life: The Yoke of Christ Matthew 11:25-30 preached @ Hawkwood Baptist Church by Shafer Parker, Jr. March 4, 2018 Today s Text Matthew 11:25 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 infants. 26 Yes, Father, because this was Your good pleasure. 27 All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal Him. 28 Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Intro. Come to me (unto me) all of you who are weary and burdened (heavy laden), and I will give you rest, has to be one of the most heart-warming, cheering statements that human ears have ever heard. It has been called one of the special treasures of Matthew s gospel, because you don t find it in any of the other three gospels. Of course what makes it so touching is the promise Jesus gives, I will give you rest. Without that promise the first half of the statement would not mean very much. No matter how weary you may be, what is the point of dragging yourself to Jesus if all you find is sympathy. Sympathy you can get from a dog. But Jesus offers more, much more. Actually, he offers something more than rest. Rest is just the beginning. He is really offering refreshment, even rejuvenation new life, abundant life, unburdened, unwearying life. I want us to explore this further in a few minutes, but first let s examine the context in which Jesus makes this wonderful offer. Observations from the text 1. 11:25 At that time There shouldn t be any mystery as to what time it was when Jesus said these things. All you have to do is look at the text that comes just before it and you will see a direct connection between what Jesus had been talking about before, and what he is about to say now. Something set Jesus off on a train of thought that led to verse 28. Let s see what it was. a. At the beginning of chapter 11 Jesus was reminded of John the Baptist, and that reminded him again of just who John was. In Matthew 11:10 Jesus specifically remembers that He and John were the fulfilment of Mal. 3:1. Malachi 3:1 See, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to His temple, the Messenger of the covenant you desire see, He is coming, says the Lord of Hosts.
John, then, was God s messenger who would clear the way, or prepare the way for the Messiah. And He, Jesus, was, the Messiah, the messenger of the covenant Who would suddenly come to His temple. b. As Jesus was reminded that He and John were the heavenly tag team prophesied by Malachi (400 B.C.) and Isaiah (740 B.C.), He was amazed at the lack of response they had received. For sure there had been a lot of excitement. There had even been a large number of converts. But nothing compared to what should have been, and ironically it appeared that amongst the Jews, the higher their training in the religion of the Jews the less likely they were to believe in either John or Jesus. But look a little closer and you will see that their rejection of Jesus was visceral, emotional, and especially logical, when you realize they rejected both Jesus and John for opposite reasons. c. John was an ascetic, eating very little and drinking no alcohol, and the Jewish elite said he had a demon (Matt. 11:18). Jesus came both eating and drinking (not in excess, but enough to show He was not afraid to enjoy Himself at the table). Him the elite called a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Matt. 11:19). And Jesus was left to ponder the fact that some people would reject Him no matter what He did. Inescapable Fact: There are those who will not believe, who will not obey, no matter how you approach the subject. For such people the same condemnation applies that Jesus laid on Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, three cities where He had ministered and done many miracles. If I had done the same miracles in Tyre and Sidon, Jesus said, or in Sodom, they would have repented; they would have believed. Therefore, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you (Matt. 11:20-24). 2. It is for these reasons that Matthew writes At that time (the time when He was reminded that many had rejected both John and Himself) 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 infants. In other words, Jesus is thanking His Father that all true revelations of God come to us as a gift of God. No one can find God or even see God apart from God s gracious revelation of Himself whether we re talking about an infant or those who are classified as the wise and learned. And never forget, Jesus is filled with praise to God for this very fact. Matt. 11:26 Yes, Father, because this was Your good pleasure. How can that be? you ask. I ll tell you. Because no one can find God apart from His gracious self-revelation, every testimony of salvation must be a hymn of praise to God for His glorious, saving grace. I was lost, but Jesus found me, Found the sheep that went astray, Threw His loving arms around me, Drew me back into His way.
But now a question arises. a. What does Jesus mean by infant? These are the people who are humble, who confess to themselves and to God that in themselves they are helpless, utterly dependent on the mercy and strength of their heavenly Father. Thus, like a child holding up an owie to be instantly made better by mom s kiss, so the person who knows himself, or herself to be a spiritual infant will come to Christ, trusting that from Him they will receive whatever is necessary to bring them to God and to make it possible for them to enjoy salvation. And when they are saved, they then live in gratitude to God, thankful for His gifts, because they know they are gifts, not something earned or deserved. Does this describe your life? b. Let me be clear about one thing. I hope you see that the contrast in Jesus statement in verse 25 is not between educated and uneducated people. Rather, it is between those who know they must be saved by grace alone because they cannot be saved any other way, and those who imagine that by virtue of their superior intellect or practical wisdom they don t need God, they can save themselves. This has nothing to do with education. This has everything to do with our willingness to humble ourselves and let God reveal the truth to us. Oh dear friends, if you want to come to God, if you want to know God, if you want God s eternal salvation, you have no hope apart from humility (repentance) and faith. Isaiah s prophetic words Isaiah 57:15 For the High and Exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy says this: I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed. David after his great sin Psalm 51:17 The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart. Jesus summary Then there is Jesus story in Luke 18:9ff of the tax collector who stood on the outskirts of the temple and cried out, God, turn your wrath from me, a sinner! Jesus said, this is the one who went home justified. 3. Now let s look briefly at v. 27. All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal Him. Do you mind if we jump straight to the central truth contained here? This verse is really just the set up for the punch line of verse 28. The question is, to whom does the Son desire to reveal the Father? The answer is verses 28 & 29: Come to Me! Take My yoke! Learn from Me! This is whosoever country. The prophet Joel said it in the Old Testament, And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered (Joel 2:32). Peter repeats it in Acts 2:21 on the day Joel s prophecy was fulfilled, and Paul says it a third time in Romans 10:13, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Come to me, all of you who are weary
and burdened, and I will give you rest. I will rejuvenate you (Grk. anapauso). I will cause streams of living water to flow from deep within (John 7:38). 4. About the yoke of Christ a. This is a yoke for those who are tired of trying and failing. You ve tried the way of the world and you know you will never be rich enough, or skinny enough, or sexy enough, or powerful enough, or self-confident enough, or safe enough, or healthy enough, or loved enough, or fearless enough to make it on your own. Maybe you ve tried one or more of the works-oriented religions of our day Mormonism, Jehovah s Witnesses, Scientology, Buddhism, all other Eastern religions, Islam, and you ve discovered that none of them bring peace, none bring joy, none bring purpose, none bring hope for life and eternity. All of this is exactly like Jesus had in mind in Matthew 23: 4 They 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. b. By way of contrast, here is Christ s yoke. Remember, Jesus was a carpenter. The thing is, in Jesus day carpenters didn t frame houses, they were craftsmen who made useful tools for daily living, including yokes for oxen (picture), but also shoulder yokes for people (two pictures). As you can see, a yoke that fit comfortably over your shoulders would help a lot when carrying heavy loads, but if it didn t fit it could chafe something terrible. I m pretty certain that back in the day the yokes Jesus made would fit. But what about today? Don t you think Jesus knows how to shape life for you, and how to shape you for the life He calls you to embrace? There is no doubt that the yoke of Christ is a yoke of service, but it is equally certain that His yoke is fitted perfectly for you. And here is the secret, you don t have to find your yoke, or fit a yoke for yourself. You come to Christ and He will fit the yoke to you. Some people spend their entire lives fruitlessly searching for God s will. But if you focus on coming to Christ, then He will make His will plain enough. c. The thing is, the yoke of Christ is a Spiritual yoke, fitted for real people living real lives. By the Spirit he assures you of forgiveness of sin, Again, by the Spirit He declares to you your full adoption into the family of God, He fills you with heaven s joy, and He assures you of God s eternal, unfailing love. How? By constantly reminding you of His cross. Think about it. As Jesus bore the cross upon his shoulders it looked like nothing more than a yoke, and in accepting Christ s yoke, you are carrying an instrument that looks like nothing so much as a cross. In fact, when you are filled with the Spirit of Christ you will love the cross so much you will long to experience something like it, and nothing will cause you to be more disappointed with yourself than when you fail to bear your cross. The yoke of Christ, then, is the glorious cross of self-denial that all of us are called to carry. d. But you know what else you will find? The yoke of Christ is easy, His burden is light. You ll find that when you are conscious of failing your Lord, he is quick to forgive, quick
to restore. He is gentle and humble of heart; we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time (Heb. 4:15-16). Disciples take the yoke of Christ... 1. Because it is the best figure for accepting a life of service, submission and obedience, for accepting the authority of another. 2. Because it is how we announce a life of learning through service and fellowship of discipleship. 3. Because it is how we confess that from Christ we receive true knowledge of life, and the purpose of life. He, and He alone, has exclusive access to the foundational knowledge of all things. It is Jesus alone who could say, If you ve seen me, you ve seen the Father (John 14:9). 4. Because the yoke of Jesus is total submission to his authority as the Teacher. But it is not a burden; it is liberation. His yoke brings a paradoxical freedom freedom from the heavy burden of sin through forgiveness; and freedom to now learn a whole new way of living that is fit for the kingdom of God. 5. His yoke makes discipleship possible.