“An Invitation to Rest”[1]
Matthew 11:20-30
Sermon Series: Kingdom
Expectations
Introduction
Ted
was five years older than Janet, finished college before her, and was working
in a city hundreds of miles from her. They always seemed to be at different places
in their lives. But they had been dating for seven years.
Every
Valentine's Day Ted would propose marriage, and Janet would say, “No, not yet.”
Finally,
when they were both living in Dallas, Ted reached the end of his patience. He
bought a ring, took Janet to a romantic restaurant, and prepared to give her
the diamond. He thought, “If she tells me no tonight, I am getting on with my
life without her.”
After
the salad, entree, and dessert, Ted was ready. But realizing Janet had a gift
for him, he asked, “What did you bring me?” She handed him a box the size of a
book. He opened the package and slowly peeled away the tissue paper. It was a
cross-stitch Janet had made that simply said, “Yes.”
It
was a word Ted longed to hear. It's also a word that God, in His tireless
pursuit of the sinner, longs to hear.”[2]
You
see this man had been extending an invitation to his sweetheart for years.
While this invitation was, “Do you want to marry me?” many of us regularly receives
invitations to weddings, birthday parties, baby showers, anniversary
celebrations, graduations, and other social gatherings.
In
our emails we receive invitations to buy products, subscribe to publications,
contribute to charities, visit vacation sites, and join travel groups. We get
informal invitations to join friends for lunch or to meet them for coffee and
conversation. The sheer volume of invitations dictates that we must be
discerning and disciplined in choosing those we accept. Many invitations come
with a sense of obligation attached to them due to ties of friendship or family
loyalty. Others are more elective, giving us greater latitude to refuse them.[3]
Jesus
offered His hearers a special invitation: come to Him and find rest from their
weariness. This invitation included the opportunity to learn from Him and serve
alongside Him. The issue then is same today: will the people accept or decline
Jesus' invitation. If we are take Jesus up on His offer, we must notice three
things:
I.
The Authority to Judge That Was Given (11:20-24).
Then He
began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done,
because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to
you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre
and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth
and ashes. 22 Nevertheless
I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon
in the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will
not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if
the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would
have remained to this day. 24 Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more
tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for
you.”
Spiritual
Truth #1:When we fail to respond to the grace of God, we
open ourselves up to His judgment.
Matthew
shows us here that Jesus is the authoritative Judge. The words, “Woe to you” in
verse 21 literally means “Warning of doom upon you.”
·
We
see first, that Jesus will condemn the unrepentant.
Jesus
is speaking to these Galilean cities-Chorazin, Bethsaida, and later Capernaum,
where He had performed most of His miracles, and the reason for the woe is
because they did not repent. People had seen the Messiah and been amazed by
Him, and some had even admired Him. However, they did not turn from their sin
in response to His invitation, “Repent,
because the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matt. 4:17). Tyre and Sidon
were Gentile cities on the Mediterranean Sea known for their godless idolatry
and immorality, and God had previously destroyed them in Ezekiel 28. Yet in
verse 21 Jesus says that if He had done in Tyre and Sidon the miracles that He
did in Chorazin and Bethsaida, those wicked cities would have repented in grief
and sorrow over their sin, which is what it means to repent in “sackcloth and ashes” (v. 22).[4]
·
Second,
Jesus will condemn the indifferent.
Jesus
tells self-righteous Capernaum that though they think they will be exalted to
heaven, in fact, they will “go down to
Hades” (v. 23). Capernaum seems to have had a sort of town motto based on Isaiah
14:13, “lifted up to the skies”
(11:23), indicating perhaps a sense of civic pride in having Jesus' ministry
based in their city, but they smugly rejected Him as their Messiah. In the same
way, modern countries that have been privileged to experience Jesus' miraculous
presence through the work of the church and Word and who may even boast, “In
God We Trust,” as we do in America, are called to account for what we have done
with Jesus.[5]
New Testament scholar Dale Bruner writes:
Christian
countries are in special trouble on judgment day, not because Jesus has not
really been in their communities but because he has. Jesus' presence, without
change, can lead to a damnation deeper than Sodom's. . .Capernaum stands for
all self-conscious Christianity, for all Christianity smug in its possession of
Jesus, in its being the center of Jesus' work. . . Jesus is not always
impressed. It is going to go better in the judgment day for notorious pagans
than for self-satisfied saints. The sum of the matter is this. Christians
should take Jesus seriously. When they do, they escape judgment, when they do
not, they invite it.[6]
II.
The Sovereignty to Reveal Truth That is Possessed
(11:25-27).
At that time Jesus said, “I
praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden
these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to
infants. 26 Yes,
Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. 27 All
things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son
except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone
to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
The intimacy of Jesus’
relationship with God is again revealed as He addresses God as “Father.” In the
context of question, rejection, and judgment Jesus praises the Father for His
wise plan of redemption. Reading these
verses, you sense yourself treading on holy ground as you glimpse the inner
workings of the Trinity. In the process, we discover several things about the
Trinitarian relationship.
1. First, we see that Jesus
alone knows the
Father.[7]
When Jesus speaks of “knowing”
here, He has in mind more than mere mental recognition. The Greek word “know”
used here metaphorically speaks of “taking the cover off” something. This word
is used only when spoken of things made known by God through the Holy Spirit.[8]
Jesus’ exclusive knowledge of
the Father is closely connected to another truth:
2. Jesus alone reveals the Father.
The only people who know the
Father are those “to whom the Son desires to reveal Him” (v. 27).
Revealing God was part of the purpose of Jesus’ coming. He didn’t come merely
with a word from God; He came as the Word of God made flesh (John 1:14), and as
such He was God revealed to man.
In both His incarnate and
eternal state as Son, Jesus and the Father know each other in an exclusive way,
which in biblical language means that they enjoy an exclusive relationship. In
His incarnate state, Jesus received from the Father the exclusive authority to
reveal the Father, which does not imply the Son’s inferiority to the Father but
the process of revelation.[9]
Humans can know the Father only through the sovereign will of the Son’s
revelation.
Spiritual Truth #2: We can
only know Christ through child-like dependence.
The fact that the only way to
know the Father is through the Son means that knowing God comes only by divine
grace. Verse 25 says that God has, “hidden these things from the wise and
learned and revealed them to infants.” The Greek word for “infants” carries
the idea of “one unlearned.”
In His mercy, God must reveal
Himself to us, which He does through the Son. And as God reveals Himself, we
respond, not with unrepentance and indifference, but through human faith. We
receive God’s truth not with self-righteousness nor with intellectual pride,
but with the humble trust of a child, acknowledging our total dependence on the
Father.[10]
Verses 20-26 actually offer a
wonderful balance between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Only
those whom God calls can receive the message. And yet repeatedly Jesus invited
His audiences to have ears to hear. It is a glorious mystery of God’s wisdom
how both divine sovereignty and human responsibility are at work in salvation. There
is no contradiction between the sovereign purposes of God and the need for a
personal, volitional faith in Christ. Rather than allowing this issue to
divide, we must embrace together the glory of the mystery of salvation in the
spirit of Paul: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the
knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways!”
(Rom. 11:33 HCSB).
III. The Invitation to Rest That is Extended (11:28-30).
“Come to Me, all who are
weary and heavy-laden, 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.”
Despite the fact that many in Israel
had begun to reject Jesus and His call for faith and repentance, the invitation
remained open: “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened.” The
call for “all” to come once again provide the balance to the statement in verse
27 that only those that the Son chooses can come to the Father.
Notice the requirements:
1. You must be willing.
“take My yoke upon you…”
The imagery in this passage is
of a “yoke.” This was a heavy wooden bar that fits over the neck of an ox so
that it can pull a cart or a plow. The yoke could be put on one animal or it
could be shared between two animals. The yoke symbolized labor, toil, burden,
and submission.
2. You must learn from One stronger
than you.
In a shared yoke, one of the
oxen would often be much stronger than the other. The stronger ox was more
schooled in the commands of the master, and so it would guide the other
according to the master’s commands. By coming into the yoke with the stronger
ox, the weaker ox could learn to obey the master’s voice. The word “learn” here
means “to learn from study or observation.”
This gives us three spiritual truths:
Spiritual Truth #3: We must
give Jesus the full weight of our sin.
The word “heavy laden” (NASB)
literally means “overburdened.” In verses 28-30 Jesus was speaking to
self-righteous people who were burdened down with laws, rules, and regulations.
Many of these laws had come from God in the Old Testament, while others had
been added on by religious teachers of the day.
In Matthew 23:4 Jesus says
that these religious teachers “tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry and
put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves aren’t willing to lift a
finger to move them.” In contrast to the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus
called the weary and burdened to come to Him. These people were so burdened
because they had failed over and over again to keep the law, and as leaders
poured on more laws, the people felt guiltier. The weight of their sin became
heavier, and they could not stand up under it.
Spiritual Truth #4: We must
give Jesus our inability to obey God.
The commands of God are not
bad, they are good (Rom. 7:12). But the commands cannot be carried out by men
in their own strength. We are imperfect, sinful people, and we cannot obey the
Master’s voice. The call to Christ is not a call to try and reform your life
and to be a better person. This kind of self-righteousness is what Ian Thomas
called, “the curse of Christendom.”[11]
Rather than calling us to
greater moral effort, Jesus says, “Come to Me” (v. 28). Notice three
things that happen when we submit to Jesus:
· He gives
all He has to us.
Remember as you hear Jesus’
invitation that He is the stronger One, who alone is able to bear the weight of
the Father’s commands. This is the One who invites us into the yoke with Him.[12]
· He gives us
full pardon for all our sin.
We are counted righteous in
Christ because He has obeyed the very law we could not obey. Therefore, when we
come to Him, we rest in peace before God. Jesus says in v. 29 that we will find
rest in Him. That word “rest” literally means “rest from oppression or
torment.” Praise God that in Christ we are free from self-effort,
self-improvement, and a constant struggle to overcome the guilt and shame of
our sin.
· He gives us
His complete ability to obey God.
In exchange for our inability,
Jesus says, “learn from Me” (v. 29). That word “learn” is important as I
mentioned earlier. The word for “learn” is the same root Greek word we get for
“make disciples” in the Great Commission later in Matthew (28:19). Jesus is
essentially saying, “Learn what it means to be My disciple, and you will find
rest for your soul.”
· He gives us
peace with God.
In other words, we obey God,
not by our own strength, but with the very strength of Christ. In everything we
do, it is Christ who is leading us, guiding us, enabling us, teaching
us-literally living through us.
At the end of the day, the
Christian life is not about what you and I can do for the kingdom in our own
effort. That is a recipe for failure. Following Christ is about Jesus the
Christ living in and through us on a daily basis. He helps us in our struggles
with sin, in our battles with temptation, and in our suffering in trials.
Believers are in the yoke with Jesus, and the One who calls us to righteous
living is the One who enables us to live a righteous life.
With the Incarnation, Jesus’
mission was to reveal the relationship between Father and Son, and include in
it those who dared to respond to this astounding revelation. We enter into a
discipleship to Jesus in which we learn from Him directly. Jeremiah had
prophesied of this New Covenant life:
-Jeremiah 31:33-34
Do
we think of discipleship to Jesus in this way? Do we understand how much of a privilege
it is to be a part of the kingdom of heaven? I suspect that we often take for
granted our relationship with Jesus, our peace with the Father, and the reality
of the church as the body of Christ.
Why
is that? It is easy to find comfort in places other than Jesus, whether it is
television, alcohol, escapist vacations, pornography, or any other thing that
dulls the pain of life. Much of what we use to dull the pain of life really
does exactly the opposite, giving us fleeting pleasure and leaving us empty.
Jesus offers us true life (John 10:10), one that forms us from the inside out
and makes us into the kinds of people who love and serve God from a renewed
nature under His easy yoke of discipleship.[13]
Dietrich
Bonhoeffer was Professor of theology at the University of Berlin in Germany in
1930’s. At this time German Christians were divided over Hitler. One group
allied themselves with Hitler; they wanted a “pure” German nation. They formed
an official German church which supported Hitler and banned Jews from holding
official positions in the Church.
Bonhoeffer
was among those who could not go along with Hitler’s anti-Jewish, radically
German vision. With others he set up an underground church which explicitly
refused to ally itself to Hitler’s Third Reich vision. It was dangerous. In
1937 Bonhoeffer was sacked. He flees to London. Two years later Bonhoeffer’s
faced with a choice. He’s been offered one of the most prestigious theology
appointments in the world – lecturing at Union Seminary in New York or
returning to Germany to head up an illegal, underground seminary for the
churches that refuse to go along with Hitler.
He
decides his faith is meaningless if he takes the easy option. He heads back to
Germany and finds Hitler so evil that he abandons his commitment to non
violence and gets involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler. The plot fails and
in 1943 Bonhoeffer’s arrested. In prison he leads worship services for his
fellow prisoners, until the fateful day April 9, 1945 when he’s executed by the
Nazis.
Through
all this what distressed Bonehoeffer was the way so many Christians could sell
out to Hitler’s evil vision. How could people who owned the name of Christ so
betray Christ? How could they pray in a church which banned Jews from holding
office?
It
convinced Bonehoeffer that religiosity in and of itself was worthless. It
didn’t matter how fervently a person believed in Jesus, how many times each day
they prayed, how earnestly and sincerely they sang hymns on Sundays. In the end
the measure of spirituality is not how we are in the church but how we are in
the whole of life. In the end the measure of spirituality is to live in the
world as a man or woman who is for others.[14]
[1] Copyright © 2016 by Bryan Cox.
All Scripture is New American Standard Version (NASB), copyright © 1995 The
Lockman Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
[2] Rubel Shelly, 1001
Illustrations That Connect, eds. Craig Larson and Phyllis Ten Elshof (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 2008), 266.
[3] Bobby Kelly, Commentary of
Matthew, Explore the Bible, (Nashville, Lifeway, 2015), 114.
[4] David Platt, eds. David Platt, Daniel
L. Akin, and Tony Merida, Matthew, Christ-Centered Commentary
(Nashville: B & H Publishing, 2014), 151.
[5] Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew,
The NIV Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 432.
[6] Frederick Dale Bruner, The
Christbook Matthew 1-12 (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2007), 425-428.
[7] The following points come from
Platt, Akin, and Merida’s, Matthew,
Christ-Centered Commentary, 151.
[8] NASB Key Word Study Bible
(Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 2008), 2107.
[9] Donald Guthrie, New Testament Theology (Westmont, IL:
IVP Academic, 2013), 307.
[10] Platt, Matthew, Christ-Centered
Commentary, 151.
[11] Ian Thomas, The Saving Life of Christ (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989), 104.
[12] The following is taken from
Platt, Akin, and Merida’s, Matthew,
Christ-Centered Commentary, 153.
[13] Wilkins, Matthew, The NIV Application Commentary, 431-433.
[14] Illustration taken from storiesforpreaching.com, accessed 13
February 2016, available from http://storiesforpreaching.com/category/sermonillustrations/discipleship/;
Internet.
No comments:
Post a Comment