The Greatest Invitation

Written by Ed Allen
 Sunday, 15 April 2007 12:09

The Jesus Thing: Through the Moses Lens

Sermon Notes

We love to get invitations. Remember the thrill of getting that first invitation to a boy/girl party.

John Stott tells of the invitation that an older couple received who were new to this country. From Eastern Europe. Did not know Western culture. Invited to a wedding. RSVP at the bottom. “Vife, vat does this mean?” Neither knew. Finally, the man realizes – “Vife, I know vat it means. It means: Remember? send vedding present.”

They made the mistake of turning an invitation into a demand. We often do that with God.

Matthew 11:25-30

Rest for the Weary

25 At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

27 "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

28 "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."

God is revealed only to the humble.

  1. Not a denunciation of education or of using your mind as you approach spiritual things.
  2. This is a denunciation of an approach to God that puts us in control. Jesus understands the inherent weakness of an approach to God that assumes we can reach Him and understand Him by our own effort and through our own knowledge and understanding. Let me make this practical:
    1. Jesus reserved his harshest criticism for the Pharisees and scribes. No doubt, this is who he is addressing here.
    2. In their attempt to follow God, they built a spiritual system that they could manage ? thousands of rules that they could follow ?
    3. Closest parallels today might be low church, Bible-belt, fundamentalists
    4. And high-church Catholics
  3. Literally, Jesus says God has hidden the truth about Himself from the wise and learned and revealed it to little children. This word translated little children is really very close to our word ?babies.?
  4. Again, Jesus is not telling us to disregard our minds or to take a non-intellectual approach to faith. Jesus? often used ?babies? to represent those who come to God with radical openness and humility. This is not an encouragement to murder our intellect; this is an acknowledgement that whenever we move toward God we are in over our heads.
    1. I think this may be why God so often reveals Himself to us in new ways and at new depths when we are in periods of crisis.
    2. We have a new openness and vulnerability which opens our hearts and minds up to life in the Spirit.
  5. God is revealed only to the humble.

God is revealed only by Jesus Christ.

  1. Two weeks ago, we talked in a very general way about Jesus? self-claims. We said he was Lunatic, Liar, or Lord.
  2. Last week we said that Jesus? resurrection authenticated his claims about himself.
  3. To add meat to the bones of that statement, in this passage Matthew recalls a full set of Jesus? most controversial claims.
    1. He claims a unique position in the universe. ?All things have been committed to me by my Father.?
    2. He claims a unique relationship to the Father. ?No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son.?
    3. Finally, he claims to be a unique doorway to God. ?No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.?

      I really like John Stott?s explanation of this section: ?Now that means, of course, that only Christ can make God fully and finally known. He is partially known in other ways ? in the order of loveliness in the created universe, in the moral demands of our conscience, in the unfolding developments of history. But although creation tells me of his glory, and conscience of his righteousness, and history of his power and providence, nobody tells me of his love for self-involved human beings or his plan to draw us to himself except for Jesus Christ.?
    4. Aren?t you amazed at the audacity of his claims? Early in my spiritual journey this was very disconcerting to me.
      1. His claim seemed to me to be so exclusive that it required a kind of unparalleled arrogance to make and even required high degrees of arrogance to believe.
      2. And yet that did not connect with what I was learning about Jesus and what I saw in his students.
      3. This is the heart of the Jesus problem: here is a figure of unique humility and goodness who claims exclusive rights both about God and about me. And now I have to decide ? everyday ? whether or not and how to submit to those claims.

Jesus invites us to come to him

  1. Notice Jesus? diagnosis of our condition: ?weary and burdened.?
    1. The advance of technology was supposed to make our lives easier. But it seems to be part of the human condition that we can turn even what was designed to be a blessing into a burden. According to a management report from June 2006, based on a survey of 1313 managers on four continents, more than one third suffer from ill health directly because of the burden of information overload. In senior management the figure rises to 43% who feel burdened and overwhelmed. The study cited as a primary cause ? the fact that the average worker gets 220 messages a day from the phone, memos, emails and advertisements.
      1. We are overwhelmed and burdened. But it runs deeper than our email inbox. We are wearied by our own shortcomings; by the failings of others toward us.
      2. Wearied by the grind and friction of relationships.
      3. Wearied by aloneness.
      4. Burdened by responsibilities; burdened by our past.
      5. Burdened by this week?s unwanted to-do?s and by last weeks that were left undone.
    2. Here?s the ironic thing: we cannot come to Christ unless we feel the real weight of our burden.
      • Jesus said: ?those who are healthy don?t need a doctor, but only those who are sick.?
    3. And when we come to Christ, he lifts our burden and gives us rest.
      1. In an immediate sense ? he takes me outside of myself; gives me a much larger perspective and the arrhythmia of my heart is set right.
        • kind of like going to a funeral
        • or sitting before the ocean
      2. In a larger sense, he gives me rest by relieving me of the ultimate burden caused by my distance from God.
        • On the cross, he was the great burden bearer.
        • There is no longer any reason for guilt or shame. Jesus takes it all.

        John Bunyan in Pilgrim?s Progress:

        ?He ran thus until he came to a place somewhat ascending, and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulcher. So I saw in my dream that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do, till it came to the mouth of the sepulcher, where it fell in, and I was it no more.

        Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said, with a merry heart, ?He has given me rest by his sorrow and life by his death.? Then he stood still awhile to look and to wonder, for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease his burden. So he looked and looked again, even until the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks.?

      3. So what must we do?
        1. There is nothing to be done except to come to Jesus.
        2. Sound like an old-time evangelist, but its true. Come to Jesus.

        Tedd Kidd was five years older than Janet, finished college before her, and started to work 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, Tedd proposed to her. Every Valentine's Day, Janet would say, "No, not yet."

        Finally, when they were both living in Dallas, Texas, Tedd reached the end of his patience. He bought a ring, took Janet to a romantic restaurant, and was prepared to reinforce his proposal with the diamond. Another no would mean he had to get on with his life without her.

        After salad, entree, and dessert, it was time. Tedd summoned up his courage. Knowing that Janet had a gift for him, however, he decided to wait. "What did you bring me?" he asked. 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."

        Yes is the word that God, in his tireless pursuit of the sinner, longs to hear.

        Rubel Shelly, Nashville, Tennessee; story told at Janet's funeral after 17 years of marriage to Tedd.

    Jesus invites us to be his students.

    1. It?s simple. It?s not a demand; it?s an invitation. Just come to Jesus.
    2. It?s simple, but not necessarily easy.
    3. Jesus? second invitation is for us to take his yoke.
    4. These invitations go together. Many of us want the rest without the yoke.
    5. So what is the yoke of Jesus?
      1. In OT times, Rabbis would regularly speak of the yoke of the Law.
      2. They meant, the need to learn it and to submit our lives to it.
      3. Jesus means the same thing as he explains.
      4. ?Take my yoke upon you and learn from me!?
    6. If we?re going to accept Jesus? invitation, we have to submit ourselves to him and become his students.
    7. Early in my spiritual journey, I was redirected by a study of Jesus!

    The problem of Jesus ? is that, on the one hand, he makes such outlandish claims and yet he is so compelling we cannot turn away. He lays his claims in front of us and then invites us to respond.

    ?Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. 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.?

    Will you come?

    Note: due to unforseen circumstances, we do not have an audio available for this week.

    Small Group Questions

    Sermon passage: Mathew 11:25 - 30.

    Jesus makes some fantastic clams about Himself and the Father. Jesus also gives us an invitation to bring Him our burdens and heavy loads of life, our guild, shame, failures, tiredness and inabilities. Then to pick up His yoke and learn from Him.

    Icebreaker: What was the heaviest thing you have ever tried to move or carry? How did you move or carry it, and how did it feel when you were done?

    Worship: "All Who are Thirsty"

    Read Mt. 11:25-30.

    Small Group Study Questions:

    1. Jesus promises rest to anyone who comes. In what ways do you feel God's rest? What burdens has Jesus removed in your life?
    2. In what ways do you still not feel rested? How are you still weary, tired, or burdened?
    3. Is Jesus giving us a one-time invitation, or are we continually invited to find his rest?
    4. What is required to enter his rest?
    5. What is Jesus' yoke? What things are we called to do when we come?
    6. Can we resist Jesus' yoke and still find his rest?
    7. How do we learn from Jesus?
    8. What has Jesus been teaching you lately?

    Prayer Time: Ask if there is anything they are burdened with now that we can pray for or help carry. Pray for friends and family who need to know Jesus to lighten their loads.

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