Rest for your Souls
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Intoduction
Intoduction
Do you ever feel weary?
I don’t mean tired, wore out from a hard days work or a long way of to many things...
I mean you feel like you have been struggling, life has suddenly got very hard, difficult for many different reasons and as such, you just feel weary?
You know God is in control, but you would need His presence to assure you… You need a touch from God.
Yes, I’ve been there at different times in my life, and for a variety of reasons.
It is during times like these that we hear from Jesus. It is times like there that we find comfort and help. He is there, he puts others in our pathways. He is taking care of us and of our need. And Jesus calls to us, give it to me.. you’re not strong enough, give it to me and I will take care of it for you…
Those are words that bless us, our souls...
Listen to Jesus
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
This passage is one of my favorites, why? We need Him! He cares of us!!!!
Rest for Your Souls
These are the words of Christ spoken to us…
Rest for Your Souls
These are the words of Christ spoken to us…
Lets see what Jesus is saying to us......
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
These are the words of Christ spoken to us in .
There is an invitation right off the bat, it is given to us by Jesus himself. Come to me...
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 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.
And look, there is the qualifier, all who labor and are heavy laden...
Matthew 11:28
One theologian says..... “the universal wretchedness of man is depicted, on both its sides—the active and the passive forms of it.”
the universal wretchedness of man is depicted, on both its sides—the active and the passive forms of it.
Labor depicted those who were working so hard, diligently if you will to keep the law, They did all they were supposed to and more… but it was never enough. it was a revolving door if you will, one piece to another, and yet it never did what people hoped.. it never provided righteousness, it never gave hope, it never calmed the soul.....
So they were always left empty. \And one of the main reasons, they never sought the one whom gave the law. They never perused the one who loved them more than they did personally, they never grew close to God.
Instead they were as Matthew reveals the words of Jesus… heavy laden.
4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
The scholars of the Jewish law, the pharisees and the Sadducees they made the law so difficult, the misnah, those 630 positive and negative expression so of the law. In truth they make it unbearable. unobtainable....
And when you never master, when you never feel you are in a right standing with God, people give up.
They say the law was to hard, God to far off.... when He really wasn’t …it was the religious leaders who ruined it all…
The religious leaders, under the wisdom of a sin touched world ruin it. Man does this, and others suffer… and the child of God wonders why the unrightoues seem to have it all… peace and rest.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
They might have joy for a season and health for a while, but it doesn’t mean they are not without trials and struggles
How sad....
Now in light of the afflection of the child of God… consider this....
So what does Jesus promise to those who would turn to him… REST.
So what does Jesus promise to those who would turn to him… REST.
In fact he mentions it twice, He is very emphatic about it...
Rest means to stop work, stop what is of no value and cease from your activity.
Jesus is calling everyone here, come and experience rest… instead of weariness, the world, the devil gives you this....
I will give you rest… obtain that which you cannot any other place.
And then moving to verse 29
These are the words of Christ spoken to us in . Only in Christ will we ever find rest for our souls. Oh, we try to find it some other way, but in the end, all of our efforts are to no avail. We can never bridge the gap between the utter perfection and holiness of a just and righteous God because our hearts are full of sin, even on our best days!
In the above passage, Christ said, My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Why then do Christians suffer? Do you remember what the Psalmist said in as he struggled with this very question?
2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
3 For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.
5 They are free from the burdens common to man;
they are not plagued by human ills.
Now look at verses 16 and 17:
16 When I tried to understand all this,
it was oppressive to me
17 till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.
We live in a world contaminated by sin; we see the results everywhere we look. But what is your destiny? Look at again to see the Psalmist's resolution of this matter.
23 Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
Indeed, whom do we have in heaven but Christ, and what does earth have for us besides our wondrous and Holy God. There is none other in heaven above or in the earth beneath that can grant us true, perfect, and holy rest. Yet, this is what we, as children of God have to look forward to when God says that our days on this earth are done.
Rest--perfect rest--only in Christ.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Only in Christ will we ever find rest for our souls. Oh, we try to find it some other way, but in the end, all of our efforts are to no avail. We can never bridge the gap between the utter perfection and holiness of a just and righteous God because our hearts are full of sin, even on our best days!
29 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.
My yoke, we know and understand the picture of what Jesus is speaking about here… that device that placed two animals under the control of the master to do the work man could not, heavy hard work. They often placed two animals into the yoke to make it easy on both.
Jesus says my yoke is light…instead of being subject to the law, and those who placed man under the heavy toil of it. Jesus says be under my Lordship, leadership and see that what God truly desires is not a burden but a delight. Coming under his headship we find life and life abundantly.
and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls—As Christ’s willingness to empty Himself to the uttermost of His Father’s requirements was the spring of ineffable repose to His own Spirit, so in the same track does He invite all to follow Him, with the assurance of the same experience.
Listen to this early church Father, Apolloinaris,,, bishop of Phrygia, 171, AD
New Testament Ia: Matthew 1–13 11:30 An Easy Yoke, a Light Burden
MY BURDEN IS LIGHT. APOLLINARIS: If the yoke is easy and the burden light, why did he call “the way” “narrow”? It is narrow to the careless, for to the zealous the Lord’s tasks are light. For even if they involve bodily suffering for a little while, yet the one who is now nourished with good hopes is the devout one who easily bears these pains. FRAGMENT 67.
And again in the last section of verse 29 we see the term rest again..
Only in Christ will we ever find rest for our souls. Oh, we try to find it some other way, but in the end, all of our efforts are to no avail. We can never bridge the gap between the utter perfection and holiness of a just and righteous God because our hearts are full of sin, even on our best days!
In the above passage, Christ said, My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Why then do Christians suffer? Do you remember what the Psalmist said in as he struggled with this very question?
29 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.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
3 For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.
5 They are free from the burdens common to man;
they are not plagued by human ills.
We live in a world contaminated by sin; we see the results everywhere we look. But what is your destiny? Look at again to see the Psalmist's resolution of this matter.
We live in a world contaminated by sin; we see the results everywhere we look. But what is your destiny? Look at again to see the Psalmist's resolution of this matter.
23 Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
Indeed, whom do we have in heaven but Christ, and what does earth have for us besides our wondrous and Holy God. There is none other in heaven above or in the earth beneath that can grant us true, perfect, and holy rest.
And again in verse 30, Jesus tells us again
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Assuring us that there is joy, peace and rest in Jesus
Yet, this is what we, as children of God have to look forward to when God says that our days on this earth are done.
Rest--perfect rest--only in Christ.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Do you need rest today?
What have you with held from Jesus? By that I mean what Have you not given to him fully that you might expereince the joy of the Lord.?
