Reading Assignment: Matthew 11:16-30
Main idea: Only the humble heed Jesus's words with faith and repentance.
Truth: Find your spiritual rest in Jesus.
Key verse: Matthew 11:28
Four parts to this section:
1. Expectations
2. Unrepentance
3. Revelation
4. Invitation
Prayer suggestions:
1. Pray about repentance. Jesus, I am Yours. My life is Yours. So, have Your way with me. Teach me, direct me, do with me as You will. I am Your servant.
2. Pray about humility. Jesus, You have humbled me. I need You. I need You to guide me and teach me.
3. Pray about spiritual rest. Jesus, as I continue to come under Your yoke, I asked that You would grant rest for my soul which You promised. Enable me to find that spiritual rest for my soul.
Transcript
The next reading assignment is Matthew 11:16-30. And the main idea is this: only the humble with a changed heart listen to Jesus's words with faith and repentance. The central truth is this: find your spiritual rest in Jesus. We should find our spiritual rest in Jesus. The key verse is found in verse 28 where Jesus said these familiar words: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Jesus spoke these words regarding spiritual rest and He made the invitation to all. But the sad reality is that not all do come to Jesus. Instead, what we find in this passage is that some people definitely refused to come and listen to Jesus. As a result, they continually lived in a state of spiritual unrest. They're a bit like little children who refuse to sleep at night, and so they become more discontented, frustrated, and out of control. Only if they would give up their stubbornness and listen to their parents, will they find rest. And it's the same in the spiritual realm. Only if people would give up their spiritual stubbornness and start listening to Jesus, then then will they find rest and refreshment for their souls, because true spiritual rest comes to us when we are restored to a worshipful and obedient relationship with God and we come to know Him truly. And so this is what this section is about, that there is spiritual rest to those who come to Jesus, but not all do. This section is comprised of four parts: expectations, unrepentance, revelation and invitation.
The first part is expectations. This is versus 16 through 19. Without a change of heart, unbelievers maintain their own expectations of what the savior should be, and they do not have an open mind to discover who is the true Savior whom God sent. Jesus compares those who refused to believe to children who expected people to play along with their silly games. He gives two examples of such games: funeral and wedding. First is the game of funeral. The children would sing a dirge expecting people to play along and mourn. Second is the game of wedding. The children would play the flute (or act like they’re playing the flute) and they would expect people to dance in joy. These games were meant to mimic the two biggest family events in the Jewish culture, funerals and weddings. Jesus says that the people of His generation are like children who expect people to play along with their silly games. He says the people expect God to do whatever they wanted Him to do. But of course, this is entirely unreasonable. Then Jesus explains what He means. The people didn't like John the Baptist because he was too much of an ascetic, a bit too weird, a social outcast. But then comes along Jesus and they didn't like Him either. Why not? Because Jesus mingled with people too much. They were impossible to please. They didn't like John because he was too much of an outsider, a recluse. They didn't like Jesus because He was too much of an insider or a social bug. They wanted a Savior of their own desires, of their own making, though they didn’t even know who they wanted. The worst part is that they were not interested in learning who the true Messiah was. That's the first part, expectations.
The second part comes up in verses 20 through 24. And here Jesus points out their unrepentance. This is the repercussion to their stubbornness, their state of unrepentance. Even though they had seen Jesus’ miracles, yet they would not believe and repent. Jesus pointed out two particular cities where He performed the most of His miracles: Capernaum and Chorazin. They're both cities that are on the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee. He condemned these cities because they had seen many of Jesus' healings and the demonstration of Jesus's power, but they neither welcomed nor heeded His message. He tells them that they will be held accountable on Judgment Day for their unrepentance. Because they had all the evidence (and this is something I just preached on Sunday) yet they still refused to believe and repent, they will face the severest of judgments. Jesus compares these two cities to the cities from history that were judged for their sins: Tyre and Sidon, and Sodom. These were wicked cities which were supernaturally destroyed by the judgment of God. God tells these two cities that on Judgment Day, it will be worse for them than even these wicked cities, because they fail to believe even though they had the benefit of undeniable evidences of Jesus's miracles. Those who did not have that benefit will condemn these cities, because of their hardness of heart.
Then comes verses 25 through 27 which is revelation. Jesus explains that there is no way that a person can come to know God by himself. God has to reveal Himself to them. And Jesus, the Son of God, came to give this revelation of God to everyone to whom Jesus wills to reveal God. To these of Jesus’ choosing, God will give them a heart to believe. Jesus calls these people infants to point out the particular humility they will exhibit. Just consider Jesus's disciples to whom Jesus revealed God. They weren't intellectuals. They weren't the respected teachers of the day. They were, in a sense, infants in comparison to the intellectuals of the day. Yet God gave them a heart to believe, and so they came to Jesus when Jesus called them. They came to learn from Him and to listen to Him.
Then finally comes verses 28 through 30 where we find Jesus's invitation. Jesus invites all to come to Him who are willing to come. He says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden.” He lays down no further qualifiers, other than their need of the rest He alone can give. “Come to Me,” He simply says. There are no other prerequisites. For all who will come to Him in response to His call are those to whom the Father has given the heart to believe. None others would come to Him. But the invitation is offered to “All,” because God can give a heart to believe to people from any strata of society. It doesn't matter what their background is. It doesn't matter what their education level might be. It doesn't matter what kind of career they had. It doesn't matter whether they're married, single, children, old or young, male or female. Jesus made the invitation to all. What was the invitation for? The invitation was for all to learn from Him. So Jesus continues to say, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me.” When Jesus talks about coming under His yoke, He is using a familiar agrarian imagery of His day. A yoke was a farming implement, a wooden bar, that harness the strength of ox or usually multiple oxen to do work, perhaps to plow the ground or pull a cart, or dig a very long furrow. To come under the yoke of someone was a metaphor for coming under their authority and direction. This is Jesus’ calling to all who are willing to heed His words: to come under His authority and direction. To these who come under His authority and direction to learn from Him, He promises them rest for their souls. This is spiritual rest. He elaborates in verse 30 that “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” The word easy is better translated as gracious. My yoke is gracious. This is to say, “My yoke does you good. It imparts to you My favor.” His promise is that He is not a harsh and an oppressive master. He even says that He is gentle and humble in heart. And so all those who come under Jesus' authority and direction will find that His authority and direction are good for them. This is something every believer comes to understand fairly early in their faith, that God is not a tyrant. He's not out to get us. We even learn this from the very beginning of the Bible. We learn that God has a blessing for His creation. The reason why we suffer in this world is because of sin, because of our own rebellion against God. In God's heart, there is only blessing for His people who repent and listen to Him. His heart toward them is one of grace. And thus Jesus demonstrates the heart of God by promising rest for our souls. His authority and direction will do us good. Jesus as our leader will be good for us.
Several prayer suggestions. First, about repentance. We can talk to Jesus about our own state of true repentance. If you are truly yielded to Jesus, you should tell Him this. Say to Him: “Jesus, I am Yours. I refused You and lived in rebellion for a long time. But that is not the way I want to live the rest of my life. My life is Yours. So, have Your way with me. Teach me, direct me, do with me as You will. I am Your servant. I am tired of living any other way. So guide my footsteps. Be the lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I come under Your yoke to learn from You.”
Another prayer is about humility. Again, if this is true of your own heart, then tell the Lord this is your heart before Him: humble. But if you find that you are still proud and stubborn, then confess that and ask the Lord to humble you as you should be. Seek Him for this. If the Lord has already humbled you, then you can tell Jesus, “Jesus, You have humbled me. At one point I thought I can take care of myself and make something of myself and have a happy life that I would design for myself, but now I realize that all of that was folly. I don't even know how to be content and happy. I need You. I need You to guide me. I need You to fill my mind with the right thoughts and fill my heart with the right affections that I would be a true worshiper and a true servant of Yours who is truly happy and content in God. I am yielded to You and humbled before You. Thank You for teaching me to be this way.”
Last thing to pray about is your commitment to learn from Jesus. If you have come under His yoke, then tell Him so and ask Him, “Teach me, Jesus. Teach me. Help me to have Your priorities as my priorities. Help me to love the things that You love and to hate the things that You hate. Enable me to be conformed to Your likeness. I, on my part, I commit to learning from You. I commit to come to You every day, to sit at Your feet and to receive Your word, to believe all that You said and to be committed in my heart to observe everything You have commanded. This is my commitment to You. I ask that You would be committed to teaching me. I pray for that rest You promised. I want my soul to always find rest in You. You promised it and so I ask for it as I continue in my commitment to learn from You daily.
So there are lots of wonderful things to pray about in this section and I pray that as you read the passage and reflect and respond to the Lord in prayer, that the Lord will bless you and enable you to taste of His rest as you daily learn from Him and live under the authority and direction of His yoke. May Jesus be your daily teacher. May the Lord bless you and we are done for today.