“Come to Me”
“Come to Me”
Does the word "weary" ever describe your life?
Do you ever feel like you have reached the end of your rope and there simply isn't enough rope left with which to tie a knot?
These are the kinds of people Jesus is addressing in the 11th chapter of Matthew.
1. He deals with the doubts of John the Baptist, v. 1-6;
2. He deals with the hypocrisy of the religious leaders,
3. He deals with the wickedness of the cities where Jesus had been preaching, v. 20-24.
Jesus came to comfort those who are wearied either with their vain efforts at religion, or their equally vain struggles against sin.
Jesus came to bring;
1. Rest from the practice of sin
2. Rest from the pollution of sin
3. Rest from the prison of sin, those who were walled in by bricks of sin and didn’t recognize it
4. Rest from the power of sin
5. Rest from the penalty of sin
In the text for our study today, we find a wonderful invitation
Extended by Jesus... including you and me, who were weary and heavily burdened in life to come to lay and put their burdens on him
(Matthew 11:28-30)
"Come to Me, all you 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." Rest because religion is hard work. Life is hard enough we can find comfort in the words of Jesus.
A good Muslim has to pray five times a day. He or she will also fast for a whole month every year.
An orthodox Jew has to use separate sinks for preparing dairy and non-dairy foods.
A Sikh is supposed to get up three hours before dawn every day to wash and pray.
A Hindu will make an offering at the household shrine three times every day.
A picture caption from a recent copy of the paper shows the following:
A religious devotee pierces his tongue with a power drill bit at a Thai ceremony Participants can pierce themselves with anything to shift evil spirits.
When your religion gets in the way of your spiritual life, lose your religion.
· "Religion" is defined as man's attempt to reach God.
· Christianity, however, is the opposite; it is God reaching down to man.
John 15:16 KJV
16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
Christianity is not living out a bunch of do's and don'ts; it is living out a relationship with a Father who loves us
A. "COME TO ME..."For as He says, "I am gentle and lowly in heart"The first thing Jesus says to religious people is, Come to me...
He doesn't say "make this sacrifice" or "perform this ritual.
He simply says, "come to me"
No rituals, no rules, no laws,
Christianity revolves around a person, the person of Jesus Christ
John 6:44 KJV
44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day
Jesus is not interested in our rituals; he is interested in our relationship with him.
"Come to me" , he says. Come to me if you want to know God. It's an extraordinary invitation, isn't it?
A invitation that calls us:
I. from labor to rest (Matt. 11:28)
II. from death to life (1 John 3:14)
III. from bondage to liberty (Gal 5:13)
IV. from darkness into light (1 Pet. 2:9)
V. from bondage to peace (1 Cor. 7:15
VI. Called to the fellowship of His Son (1 Cor. 1:9)
Lets look at his invitation again, he says;B. "TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU..."The Burden Bearing Christ
There is a wonderful legend concerning the quiet years of Jesus, the years prior to his visible ministry. The legend claims that Jesus the carpenter was one of the master yoke-makers in the Nazareth area. People came from miles around for a yoke, hand carved and crafted by Jesus son of Joseph.
When customers arrived with their team of oxen Jesus would spend considerable time measuring the team, their height, the width, the space between them, and the size of their shoulders. Within a week, the team would be brought back and he would carefully place the newly made yoke over the shoulders, watching for rough places, smoothing out the edges and fitting them perfectly to this particular team of oxen.
That’s the yoke Jesus invites us to take. The word “easy,” for its root word in Greek speaks directly of the tailor-made yokes: they were “well-fitting.”
The yoke Jesus invites us to take,
the yoke that brings rest to weary souls, is one that is made exactly to our lives and hearts.
The yoke he invites us to wear fits us well, does not rub us nor cause us to develop sore spirits and is designed for two.
His yokes were always designed for two. And our yoke-partner is none other than Christ himself.
He is not just a Lord whom we burden, and we do, but a Lord who actually solicits our burdens.
C. "...AND LEARN FROM ME" & I will give you restBurdens, Christ, Burden Bearer:
Several years ago, the Wall Street Journal carried a story about Sally, an overly conscientious youngster who made herself miserable over the smallest failures and setbacks.
Early one fall, while the leaves were still on the trees, there was an exceptionally heavy snowstorm. Sally's grandfather took her for a drive and said, "Notice those elms, the branches are so badly broken that the trees may die. But just look at those pines and evergreens. They are completely undamaged by the storm. My child, there are two kinds of trees in the world, the foolish and the wise. An elm holds its branches rigid. As it becomes weighted down, eventually its limbs break. But when an evergreen is loaded, it simply relaxes, lowers its branches, and lets the burden slip away. And so it remains unharmed. Be a pine tree, granddaughter.
"
· Christians who give up all their cares to the Lord can face life's burdens much better than those who try to bear the weight themselves.
Jesus invites you to come to him and leave your burdens at the foot of the cross.
