“Come to Me”
Matthew 11:28-3028. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
29. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Jesus spoke to men desperately trying to find God and desperately trying to be good, men who were finding this task impossible and who were driven to weariness and to despair.
Jesus’ invitation is to those who are exhausted with the search for the truth. The way to know God is not by mental search, but by giving attention to Jesus Christ, for in Him we see what God is like.
1. Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened.”
For the Jew religion was a thing of burdens. Jesus said of the Scribes and Pharisees: “they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders” (Matt. 23:4). To the Jew religion was a thing of endless rules. A man lived his life in a sea of regulations which dictated every action of his life. He must listen forever to a voice which said, “Thou shalt not.”
Matthew 12:1-13
1. At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them.
2. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
3. He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?
4. He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread-which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.
5. Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent?
6. I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.
7. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.
8. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
9. Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue,
10. and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
11. He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?
12. How much more valuable is a man than a sheep;! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
13. Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.
Matthew 15:1-8
1. Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked,
2. “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
3. Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?
4. For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’
5. But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’
6. he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
7. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8. “’These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’”
2. Jesus says “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me”.
The Jews used the phrase “yoke” for entering into submission to. They spoke of the yoke of the Law, the yoke of the commandments, the yoke of the Kingdom, the yoke of God. Jesus wants us to learn from His example and not follow burdensome teachings of the world and its ebb and flow, wishy-washy philosophies which change every five minutes. Jesus does not want us to follow rules but to follow Him. He wants us to come to Him and find out what is right and wrong! Learn from ME!!!!!!
Submit to ME!!!!!!
John 14:6
6. “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
3. 3. Jesus ways, “My yoke is easy.”
The word “easy” is in Greek chrestos, which means well-fitting. In Palestine ox-yokes were make of wood; the ox was brought, and the measurements were taken. The yoke was then roughed out, and the ox was brought back to have the yoke fitted. The yoke was carefully adjusted, so that it would fit well and not hurt the neck of the beast. The yoke was tailor-made to fit the ox.
Jesus says, “My yoke fits well.” He means: “The life I give you is not a burden to hurt you; your tasks are made to fit you.” Whatever God tells us to do, is made to fit our needs and our abilities exactly.
1 Corinthians 10:13
14. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.
Ephesians 2:10
9. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Hebrews 13:20-21
20. May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
21. equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
4. Jesus says, “My burden is light.”
Jesus shares our burdens. The load is light because He helps us carry it. He does not let us off the hook, we do have burdens and responsibilities to carry out for Jesus. He wants to help us carry out those tasks. We are not called to work on our own! But the church is full of “Lone Rangers”, riding the lonesome trail of “I can do this on my own!!!” We were not called to this kind of heavy burden. Jesus says “Come to Me”.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
9. Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:
10. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!
John 15:14-15
14. You are my friends if you do what I command.
15. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made know to you. Oswald Quote
Come to Jesus, let Him meet every question and every burden and every sin and every sorrow with His compassion and forgiveness and love and most importantly His divine help. We were never meant to go it alone; Jesus wants us to COME!!!!!!