You're Invited
From Pastor Lance Shumake's message on Matthew 11:25-30:
The only way to God the Father is through Jesus.
Jesus is the Son of the God.
In our text this week, Jesus tells His disciples exactly who He is and what He invites us to.
In his book “Mere Christianity”, C.S. Lewis explains how foolish it is when people say that they are ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but don’t accept his claim to be God. He writes,
“That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that option open to us. He did not intend to.”
We must ask ourselves: what do we believe to be true of Jesus? He cannot simply be a great moral teacher, so... is He a liar, a lunatic, a legend, or Lord?
All of this hinges on the resurrection. It is the key to understanding everything.
Almost all of Jesus’ disciples who witnessed the resurrection, died for what they believed. There is so much evidence that points to the cross.
...do we believe it?
If we do, the invitation Jesus gives us is simple: “Come to me,” He says, “all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”
It’s important to note that the invitation is not “go and do”, it’s “come to me”. Only through Jesus can we find true rest for our tired and weary souls.
When we try to bear our own burdens and carry our own weight, at some point we realize it isn’t working. Instead, we must go to Jesus -- He tells us to take His yoke, it’s easy, and that His burden is light.
Jesus never says that He will remove our burdens, but He does promise to help us balance them out and be better adjusted for the journey ahead.
The yoke that Jesus speaks about is a yoke of trust. It’s there to remind us to obey and stay connected to Him, instead of what the world tells us to.
John 5:2-4 says,
“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victor that has overcome the world - our faith.”
If we love God, we obey His commandments. We come to Him; we take His yoke.
The last instruction Jesus gives us in this passage is to learn from Him. He invites us to journey with Him; to keep growing and learning alongside Him. This is how life makes sense.
The incentive He gives us through all of this is REST. Rest for eternity and rest right here, right now, for our souls. A peace that surpasses understanding. A peace that comes when we know that God is in control and that He works all things together for good.
It’s wild that He would even offer any of this to us. We don’t deserve it.
Yet, in verse 29, He reveals His heart to us, “I am gentle and lowly in heart”. Jesus is not condemning or judging to those who come to Him, He is accessible and has moved toward us. He did not come to be served, but to serve. He pursues us and asks that we lay our burdens down.
He gives us rest.
--
“The dominant note left ringing in our ears after reading the Gospels, the most vivid and arresting element of the portrait, is the way the Holy Son of God moves toward, touches, heals, embraces, and forgives those who least deserve it yet truly desire it.” - Dane C. Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly
This sermon is available to watch on our Matthew page.
