For I Am Gentle and Lowly
Notes
Transcript
So today, in the short time that we have together, I wanted to have a look at WHO JESUS IS.
Now I know some of you are already thinking, ‘We know who Jesus is, He is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Saviour of the World. He died on the cross and rose again three days later and then ascended into Heaven where He is now seated at the right hand of the Father.’ Yep we know all this, some of you might be thinking, ‘Wow I didn’t know any of that, in which case that was a great little recap for you.’
But thats not what I want to look at today. I want to look at really WHO Jesus is. What is his HEART. We hear this word ‘heart’ sometimes in the bible and its very easy for us to think of this as the physical heart, or perhaps the thing that controls us emotionally every day.
But in the Bible, both NT and OT, this isn’t what the heart is. The heart is the the very centre of all we do. In biblical terms, the heart isn’t a little part of us, its the entirety of us. Our very core. It drives all we do.
Charles Spurgeon, the great theologian and preacher points out something that a lot of people just reading their bibles probably haven’t noticed. He notes that out of all four gospels, Matthew Mark Luke and John, and all the many stories we have about Jesus, there is only one place where Jesus tells us about his HEART.
And its here, in Matthew 11:28-30, probably the most incredible and life changing words that have ever been spoken by human lips:
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.”
Wow.
There’s a guy called Dane Ortland who recently wrote a book on these three amazing verses in the Bible and its called Gentle and Lowly, you might recognise those words from what we just read. And he says this:
In the one place in the Bible where the Son of God pulls back the veil and lets us peer way down into the core of who he is, we are not told that he is “austere and demanding in heart.” We are not told that he is “exalted and dignified in heart.” We are not even told that he is “joyful and generous in heart.” Letting Jesus set the terms, his surprising claim is that he is “gentle and lowly in heart”
This word ‘gentle’ in the Greek is translated a few different ways, we have ‘humble’, we have ‘gentle’ and we have ‘meek.’ Humble, gentle, meek.
That is how Jesus describes himself. His heart. The centre of WHO He is.
He’s not easily agitated, he’s not loud and aggressive, he’s not harsh, not reactionary.
He is basically the opposite of the person that our busy society and culture is trying to shape us into.
The word ‘lowly’ has a meaning in the Greek that overlaps with ‘gentle’ but its trying to convey something different.
This word is often used to mean ‘humble’ but not ‘humble’ in a virtuous sense, but humble in circumstances, in status, in position. Jesus is saying when he says that he is ‘lowly’ that he is accessible.
That he is waiting there with his arms open for you. This majestic, all powerful, awesome King who was raised up and exalted, is also the most accessible person in the whole universe. The most friendly and welcoming person to have ever lived and that you will ever know.
And he tells us that the only condition is that we welcome Him with open arms. That we come to Him. Despite all our brokenness and sin and everything that we do wrong, Jesus says come to me ‘ALL who labor and are heavy laden.’
You don’t need to clean yourself beforehand. You don’t need to make sure that you are completely perfect before you can come to Jesus.
Jesus says that your sin and your burden is the very thing that qualifies you to come.
Some of us may think sometimes that we aren’t as broken as we really are. We lose sight of just how sinful we are.
But oh how wrong we are. We are so broken. Countless times each day, we rebel against God in what we say and what we do and what we think. We can’t help ourselves. And we are so broken, Ephesians 2 tells us that we are ‘dead in sin.’ Romans 9 tells us we can do nothing to change this. No human exertion or will could change the fact that the evil within us is going to send us to Hell. We deserve to be punished for our sin, and quite frankly if I woke up in Hell tomorrow morning and God told me I was going to be punished for eternity for what I have done, I would have no argument against Him. I wouldn’t.
That is the state of us. Of humans. And yet maybe some of you can already see the BEAUTY in what we’ve read today, but let me just emphasise this.
Jesus, who is perfect, wants us. He wants to be in relationship with us. He wants to give us rest, from everything that we worry about or can’t control, or don’t want to deal with anymore. He wants to set us free from all of that. And it costs us nothing. It cost Him his life. But it cost us nothing.
And it also isn't something that he’s doing on the side, something that he HAS to do, something that is a part of who He is. We’ve heard this morning that this is his heart. This is the centre of who he is. Everything about Him desires to be in relationship with us, despite our sin and how broken we are.
God sent His Son to die for us so that we might not perish, but have eternal life. If you can find me a more beautiful truth than that, a more eternal truth, a more life transforming truth than that, I’d love to hear it.
How amazing. And all we have to do is accept Him. Welcome Him into our lives. Centre our hearts, the core of who we are, around Him and His heart.
Maybe some of you hadn’t heard this before, didn’t know this truth, didn’t know who Jesus truly is, and for you I’d love to give you a chance in a minute to respond to this, to welcome Jesus into your life. For some of you, this may be the first time, maybe you’ve never got round to it, you’ve always thought that you know Jesus and you know all there is to know about Him, but today you’ve realised that there is so much more to know and thats just really excited you.
Maybe for some of you, you’ve already done this before. You’ve already accepted Jesus into your life, but you’ve been thinking wow there’s so much more that Jesus has to offer me and I’d love to welcome him in again, and lay down my life to Him again, surrendering everything that I am. And that’s ok too.
But Jesus has life for you, and life to the fullest. Eternal life, eternal rest. Far greater than any worldly thing could possibly ever offer you.
And all you have to do is say ‘yes’ to that.
So lets pray. Now we’re all going to close our eyes, so there’s no one watching you or judging you at all. And if you feel like thats you. That you just want to have some of this life and rest that Jesus wants to give you, I just want you to raise your hand and I’d love to pray for you now. No one is watching, everyone is focused on themselves, but if you feel like thats you, then raise your hand.
Jesus wants to meet with you. He has so much to offer you.
If you’ve raised your hand, maybe just place them out palms up in front of you in a posture of receiving and being open, and I’d love you to say this prayer with me, repeat the words in your heart, you don’t have to say it out loud, Jesus hears you. He understands everything that you’re going through right now.
So let’s pray that now:
Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross to rescue me from sin and death and to restore me to the Father. I choose now to turn from my sins, my self-centeredness, and every part of my life that does not please you. Thank you that you are gentle and lowly at heart. I give myself to you. I receive your forgiveness and ask you to take your rightful place in my life as my Savior and Lord. Come reign in my heart, fill me with your love and your life, and help me to become a person who is truly loving—a person like you. Restore me, Jesus, give me rest. Live in me. Love through me. Thank you, God.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.