Trading Yokes And Finding Rest

Trading Yokes and Finding Rest

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

Ever get so tired that your bones ache and your mind so exhausted that you can barely think? You know one of those days that all you want to do is crawl into bed and sleep? Are you weary from the struggles of life? Are you weary from the storms that rage all around you threatening to strangle out normalcy and decency in your daily routines? Or maybe you are simply exhausted due to having worked too many hours at your job and have filled your calendar with way too many obligations? If physical and mental struggles were not challenging and energy draining enough, maybe you are simply worn out from trying to serve the sinless Lamb of God by your own effort and the burden of sin is crushing your soul? One can’t help but wonder … are we not “looking, running, seeking, struggling, fighting, loving, rushing, searching all to find what only Jesus Christ can give?” Today’s passage found in Matthew 11:28-30 appeals to us because it is the Great Shepherd’s invitation for those who are “weary in their spirit” to come to Jesus and receive rest! St Augustine stated that there is nothing sweeter than this, “thou have made us, O God, and our heart is restless till it rests in Thee.” The following sermon is going to show how true rest begins with faith in a risen Savior and once born again is cultivated in the fertile soil of the humble and gentle hands of the Master. We will learn that the crushing weight of sin is alleviated not through more “human effort” but through partnering, learning, and receiving the divine yoke of our sympathetic high priest Jesus who when invited molds the clay of our lives back into His image whence we came! The sermon will finish by describing divine rest both now and our final resting place in heaven in Jesus’ arms, a place that is more peaceful and joyful than we could ever ask or imagine!

Coming to Jesus - Salvation

The journey of finding rest for one’s soul begins with faith in the Lord’s vicarious sacrifice! All have fallen short of the glory of God, and all have become altogether worthless and incapable of either knowing or pleasing God (Ephesians 3:23; Romans 3:9-18)! By our own efforts we cannot earn our salvation, nor can we know the Unknowable for our intelligence and wisdom can not lead to the way, truth and life but remains the dust’s foolish attempt (Isaiah 55:8-9) to receive what can only be obtained by faith and grace (Ephesians 2:8-9)! When Jesus states, “come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest,” He is pointing out the truth that He alone is the epicenter of God’s self-disclosure and the only means of approaching the Father’s throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). The burden of being simultaneously “under the dominion of Satan” and the righteous wrath of God can only be removed through faith in the divinely appointed Lamb who was slain before the foundation of this world (Revelation 13:8). “Your sin was not pardoned by a violation of divine justice, just was satisfied in Jesus, He alone gives you rest.” True rest comes from being born of the water and the Spirit (John 3:5) for it is only upon passing from spiritual death to life that the burden of guilt is removed and one gets the privilege of crying out Abba, Father as His very own child! Since Jesus died once and for all, the first part of this passage is nothing less than an invitation to everyone to believe in the Bread of Life and Living Waters (John 6:35, 7:37-39) necessary to redeem, sustain and provide rest for their souls!

Coming to Jesus – Escape Legalism

Upon salvation the journey to further cultivate rest in one’s soul is found in taking on “Jesus’ yoke to relieve the burdens and weariness of life (Matthew 11:28). Often people are weary because they are trying to satisfy the laws of God based on their own effort! While the wicked are in a troubled sea and cannot experience rest too many God-fearing believers cannot find rest either because they have taken up the “yoke” of Pharisaic legalism that foolishly states that through obedience to the Law and by performance of certain rites and ceremonies one is not only saved but can please God. While the oral traditions and written Law appealed to the Pharisees it was a yoke too burdensome to bear and gave false hope because it was weakened by the sinful nature that could not stop from breaking the Lord’s righteous decrees (Romans 8:1-3). Jesus invites us to take up the yoke of pleasing a holy God by learning and being empowered by His Son to throw off the shackles of sin that so easily entangles us (Hebrews 12:1). Jesus is telling us to “come not to the Pharisees, who will instruct you in tradition, and in the jots and tittles of the Law, but go past these to Me (Jesus), the God, the Mediator, the Redeemer, and the propitiation for human guilt.” Jesus is not saying the Law is irrelevant or that He demands any less from His followers but instead that He will teach and empower those who seek Him to go even further towards holiness by obeying the spirit in which the Law was given (Matthew 5:17-48)!