Come To Me
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Opening
Opening
God is Good! (All the Time) All the Time (God is Good!). What do we mean by that, when we say God is good?… And what brings us to this conclusion that God is good?… Our experiences, that is one way but due to all of us having different experiences this cannot be the baseline support for the claim that God is good. While some have had answered prayers others have prayers that have gone unanswered. While some have experienced healing others have experienced long periods of pain and suffering. So while our experiences can support the claim that God is good, it cannot be the substantive support.
So what do we have that brings us to the conclusion that God is good?… His word. And how do we get to the point of trusting his word as the truth? There are a few criteria we have as Christians to come to the conclusion that God’s word is true. First we have church history. For almost 2,000 years the Church has stood that the written word of God is truth that was inspired by God. Second we have the historical record of the Bible. The Bible consists of 66 books that were written over 1500 years by 40 plus different authors, yet has one consistent message from Genesis to Revelation. This also gives support that each of these books must have been inspired by God and ordained by him to be collected together as his specific revelation to mankind. Third, we have the privilege of living in an age where our advancements in science have continued to prove the biblical accounts to be true. Finally, we have the fact that God’s word testifies to it’s own truthfulness.
It is this last point that I want to focus in on today in regard to our question of how do we know that God is good? Specifically we are going to look at the nature of God’s heart towards man as reveled through his son Jesus. Our main passage today comes from the gospel of Matthew and we find it in chapter 11. While Luke does have a portion of this passage as a parallel, what Jesus reveals about himself and ultimately God, Matthew is the only gospel writer to convey this message.
At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and I will give you rest for your souls. I don’t know about you but this line intrigues me. What is a rest for your soul? I can understand the need for a rest after a hard days work , but I do not believe Jesus had a rest from physical labor in mind here. No he indicates a rest for your soul. Have any of you ever experienced your soul in a state of unrest? Your emotions are so churned up inside, that due to the anxiety, angst, anger, confusion, tension, grief, sorrow, and the like, you are unable to rest let alone function. Maybe you have a decision to make but the reality of what is not known to you as a outcome of your decision nearly has you paralyzed. Maybe you are holding onto something that you need to forgive, but to forgive means you give up control and not being in control terrifies you. Maybe you have wronged someone and need to seek forgiveness but the embarrassment of having to humble yourself is keeping you from reaching out. Maybe there is a situation going on with a loved one and all you can do is sit back and trust God while wishing you could fix it but can’t. Whatever it may be, I am sure we have all face some type of moment when our soul has been in at state of unrest.
But this passage is not simply about the human condition of needing rest for our souls. It is about how Jesus is the only one that rest for our souls can be found in because of his very nature which is the very nature of God. To understand the impact of vv. 25-30 it is best to understand what Matthew has been spelling out up to this point.
Matthew’s first chapter gives us the lineage of Jesus. We always want to skip these but as a first century Jew this would have been an important argument from Matthew. Why, because Matthew was showing how Jesus was both the promised seed of Abraham and David. Matthew’s going look! This is the one we have been waiting for! In chapter 2 Matthew shows how Jesus fulfilled prophecies from the OT.
The story of the Magi
And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.
A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord.
The escape to Egypt
When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
Chapter 3 shows John the Baptist as the voice calling the way in the wilderness. And chapter 4 shows Jesus initial defeat over the kingdom of Satan by not giving into temptation and the initiation of the Kingdom of God.
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Matthew finishes out his opening portion by showing Jesus calling disciples to himself and showing signs and wonders through the healing of the sick to give proof that the kingdom of God was here. The next section chapters 5-7, or as we know it as The Sermon on the Mount, is Matthew’s way of conveying Jesus message on kingdom living. Chapter 8 brings us more evidence through signs and wonders. This brings us to chapter 9 which starts the section that our passage today ends.
And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Why is this portion important? Let’s look at the section prior to our passage for today.
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”
Wow! Right before Matthew has Jesus saying come to me all who are weary and burden, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you’ll find rest for your souls. When I read that passage the picture I have in my mind is that of Jesus as the Shepherd, sitting on a bolder in field with little lambs all around him. Yet the context that Matthew gives us that verse in, is that it comes off of Jesus condemning the towns of the area. What is it he is condemning them for.
Back in the beginning of chapter 9 Jesus heals a paralytic by saying “Your sins are forgiven.” The Pharisees in attendance accused him in their hearts of blaspheme. Jesus knew this and called them out. Towards the end of 9 Jesus cast a demon out of a mute man and the Pharisees claim he is doing by the power of Satan. What Matthew does next is paint the picture of the people being helpless and harassed like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus then explains that the work is great but the workers are few. Chapter 10 is Jesus sending his disciples out to do the work. What is the contrast? What is Matthew trying to paint for us when we consider that he is using his gospel as a testimony to the Jews?
Who was Israel supposed to be? What was God’s plan for Israel? They were to be a light to the nations. There covenantal relationship with Yahweh was to make them a physical representation of the invisible God. Yet, they were operating as overlords. The people were helpless and harassed like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus is fed up with this, so he sends his disciples out to be the representatives.
As we transition into chapter 11, Matthew shows Jesus continue his teaching. He is showing the people how they missed the signs. He tells them how John the Baptist is the last in the line of OT prophets, that he was the Elijah that they had been waiting on. Yet, this was not how he was seen. Jesus, says that John was seen as operating with a demon and further more Son of Man came as a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Jesus then proceeds to condemn several of the towns in the area. He proclaims that their lack of faith at the signs that have been done through him in their towns will cause them to bear more judgement than towns that were reeked of immorality and idolatry that God had destroyed. His own town of Capernaum he states is worst of than Sodom. I want you to think about that for a minute. Capernaum was so full of self-righteous indignation that a city God deemed to be unworthy of continuing to exist due to its sexual immorality, a town that was so evil that when judgement fell on it if you looked back you perished as well, that town, Sodom will receive more tolerance on judgement day than Capernaum.
This is the stage that Matthew has set for giving us a look into the very nature of Christ’s being. One that is described as gentle and lowly. Yet it should not surprise us that this is the character that Jesus embodies. When Moses goes back up to God on Mt. Sinai to get a new set of tablets this is what God proclaims to him.
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
This description of God is repeated more times than any other in the Bible. What does it mean for Jesus to be gentle and lowly in heart. It means he is slow to anger, abounding in love, rich in mercy and grace. This is who our God is. This is who Jesus is. And when they see their people mistreated by those who were placed in a position of spiritual authority over them, this provokes their righteous anger. See the Pharisees had created a religious system that was too burdensome for the people.
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 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. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Ultimately, sin caused this. Man’s inclination to sin caused undo burden on those around them. Jesus’ statement of being gentle and lowly, means that for those who have been burden by sin and misconstrued religious ideas, he is the one that can give you freedom. He is the one that can give you rest for your weary soul. And this happens in spite of what those who believe themselves to be the wise and learned think.
So what does this mean for us today? There are three biblical truths that I have gleaned from this passage and the larger context of Matthew.
First, man’s natural inclination is to his own understandings.
Man’s natural state is a fallen sin-filled state. In this state mankind, that is each one of us here today, is inclined to lean on our own understandings rather than God’s. This is nothing new, it has been this way since Adam and Eve first sinned. Have you ever wondered how we go from Eve eating the forbidden fruit to Cain killing his brother? That seems like a drastic jump in one generation. I recently read an article on The Gospel Coalition that helped explained this.
When God addressed Adam, Eve, and the Serpent in the garden, he told Eve that there would be enmity between her offspring and the Serpents and that her male offspring would crush his head. Fast forward to chapter 4 what do we see? Eve gives birth to a male offspring. If you were Eve having just been evicted from paradise but promised a male offspring to avenge you, what would you be thinking when your first born is a male child? This is him! It is him who will crush the serpents head and set everything straight. Eve names her son Cain which is the noun form of the Hebrew verb that means “I have recieved.” Eve believed her eldest son to be the promised one from God. She believed this so much that when the next son was born, Abel, she does not proclaim what his name means. Yet, the verb form of Abel’s name we do find elsewhere, specifically Ecc 1:2.
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia Chapter 1
הֲבֵ֤ל הֲבָלִים֙ אָמַ֣ר קֹהֶ֔לֶת הֲבֵ֥ל הֲבָלִ֖ים הַכֹּ֥ל הָֽבֶל׃
Meaningless meaningless says the preacher, meaningless meaningless, everything is meaningless.
Eve was so sure that Cain was the man that she saw so value in Abel till after he died. And so when God did not accept the offering from the one who was thought to be the solution to their problem, Cain’s pride swelled up in him and he lashed out in anger killing his brother.
Our inclination to our own understanding is damaging. That is why God warns us against it.
There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.
This was Jesus’ problem with the Pharisees. With all that Israel had been through since God called Abraham out of Ur, the Israelites were still leaning on their own understanding of the Torah. This brings us to our second point.
Second, man’s understandings create division between man and God, and man and his fellow man.
Jesus’ words in Matthew 23 indicate that the Pharisees who had a zeal to follow God, were in fact separated from because they had been following him from their own understanding. How they were interpreting God’s word in how they were to function towards God and their fellow man had become twisted. They were creating burdens for those they were to be leading that they themselves would not follow. The unfortunate thing is the state of the Church is not much different today.
In an article on livescience.com posted in February of last year, there are estimated to be 45,000 Christian denominations globally and 200 different denominations here in the states. Why, why are there so many different denominations? Well because we all have different understandings yet desire to be grouped with other likeminded individuals. Let’s face a hard fact. Today in America if you do not like something about the church you currently attend you just travel to the next one down the street until you find one you like, even if it is from the comfort of your living room couch. As consumers we want our church experience to be like everything else in our lives, all about us. We want the music we like, we want the leaders to respond to our ideas and needs when they arrive, we want our program to be the one that it used. The one thing we do not want is to be held accountable…by anyone. We want our chief end to glorify ourselves and to live a life that matches our definition of being fulfilled.
And here we are, leaning on our own understandings bound to the highway to hell, tied to the path that leads to death. Separated from God and at a distant from our fellow man sinking as we try not to drown in this thing we call life. We echo the words of Jonah.
Jonah 2:3–6 (ESV)
For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
The waters closed in over me to take my life;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
And there we are lost in despair with the dark setting in. Yet even here, all hope is not lost, for in the midst of our darkest hours light breaks in.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
And this brings us to our last point.
The answer to our darkest hour when we are separated from God and our fellow man is, Jesus the Messiah the only one with perfect understanding and perfect character.
Come to me all who are weary and burdened for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. How many of us long for rest? Jesus is where we can find it. He left the peace and security of heaven to come and bear our burden of sin so that we may find peace and rest in him. It was out of his perfect character, his perfect understanding of his father’s will, and his perfect obedience, that in our darkest and dirtiest moments he is calling to us saying “Come to me I am gentle and lowly.”
His desire is for all to come to know that rest and he has entrust us to carry that message to the world. The divisions that have plagued the Church have hindered the testimony of Christ. Christ call us to unity. Paul sums it up really well in his letter to the Philippians.
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
Why is this ours in Christ Jesus? Why is it we can grow to unity and to one mind? Paul goes on to remind the reader that it is because of the Gospel itself that we can do this.
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This is what is to be remembered. Christ came, he suffered and died, and he was raised from the dead so that every tongue will confess him Lord. If you confess Jesus as Lord he desires for you to live in unity with your brothers and sisters in Christ growing in mind with them walking in obedience to his ways. When hurt and pain and division happen, he is not there to scold, rather he is there to hold.
If you have not confessed Jesus as Lord, a day is coming when you will and you will not have a choice. If you wait for that day the come the Bible is clear about what waits for you after that. I plead with you do not wait. Accept Jesus lordship over your life today and find the love and freedom you have never know.
END WITH PRAYER