Jesus’ Call for All Who Are Weary

Jesus’ Call for All Who Are Weary

Matthew 11:28-30 

 

Illus. Working smarter?

 

Illus. Burden defined.

 

This morning we are going to turn to Matthew 11:28-30, where we will read some powerful words Jesus spoke to those in His day who were weary and burdened with seemingly no way out. Their weariness was largely from spiritual leaders who were applying burdens that nobody was able to carry.

In these verses, Jesus speaks to the weary people and world He was living in, and His words, were powerful, personal, and pointed the people to the truth that despite what they were going through in their day, there was a better way. Jesus gave a way out of weariness; it was a call for all who were weary. 

 

Matthew 11:28-30, “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. For My yoke is comfortable (easy), and My burden is light.”

 

As we work through these verses this morning, we will look at what specifically Jesus was addressing to the people historically, but also, apply His words to our lives presently. They are words that are important for us to understand because Jesus gave a call for all who are weary, that includes those He spoke to historically, and you and I presently. As we study these verses I want to look at three calls Jesus made for all who are weary, specifically: His invitation, what to trade in, and the promised conditions that come from Him.

 

1. Accept the Invitation to Come to Him

 

Matthew 11:28, Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

 

• Verse 28 begins in an invitation from Jesus to come to Him.

 

• An immediate observation that can be made about His invitation is that those He is speaking to, those He is calling to come are not near Him.

 

• The word there picture a calling toward, “come here,” “come to this place,” it is also the word translated “follow” when Jesus called His first disciples.

 

• So, the invitation is given. Then Jesus addresses the invitation, “all who are weary and burdened…”

 

• The inclusion of “all who are,” highlights a condition that already exists.

 

• Jesus is calling out to those who are already weary, and already burdened. They are walking and living in those conditions.

 

• The term weary carries the idea of working to utter exhaustion.  It is word that translates a present active participle, which means it is something that is happening, people are working to exhaustion.

 

• Jesus was speaking specifically to those who were working to exhaustion trying to please God and know the way of Salvation.

 

• The word for weary here is also translated labor, or all who are laboring.

 

• When Jesus said burdened, it is a word also translated heavy-laden and indicates that at some point a great load was dumped on that weary person.

 

• It illustrates the person who was already weary, and then an unbearable load was dumped on top of them. It is not something you placed on yourself; rather, it is a burden that has been dumped on you.

 

• The burden Jesus is talking about is the burden of the rabbinical teachings and that of the Pharisees, and the religious leaders in that day.

 

• Traditional Jews considered the rabbinic instructions to be the proper interpretations of the Scriptures.

 

• In Jesus’s day the rabbinical teachings had become so demanding that there were standards and formulas for essentially every human activity. It was all but impossible to keep them all.

 

• The Scribes worked our rules and regulations and the Pharisees separated themselves from all ordinary activities in life to keep these rules outwardly, but as Jesus pointed out, not inwardly.

 

Matthew 23:4, They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.

 

• There were commands in Scripture and then supplementary rules and restrictions on top of those commands.

 

• Specifically, there were over 600 rules and regulations added to the command to not work on the Sabbath day. The command was not to work, what was added to that was any burden a person would bear on that day could be a form of work.

 

Illus. The weight of a burden.  

 

• This had become the essence of religion for the Scribes and Pharisees.

 

• It is in Jesus that all would find true rest and holiness (Heb. 4:1-11), they would not find rest in the heavy and overwhelming burdens being placed on them.

 

• Jesus says come to me, all who are weary and it shows His heart toward all who are weary, troubled, overwhelmed, and bogged down.

 

• Jesus says come to me…All who are weary, depressed, despairing, discouraged, unable, incapable, weighted down.

 

• They were being told this is the way, that is the way, and ultimately, the people were weary because keeping all of the rules and regulation began to make people feel like there was no way!

 

• Jesus said it best…

 

John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.”

 

• Though in Matthew 11:28 it seems that Jesus is speaking directly to Spiritual burdens, weight, and weariness, I am often compelled by the posture of Jesus toward those carrying all types of weariness and weight.

 

Illus. Getting to Jesus.

 

• Jesus’ call was an invitation, but it was and is an invitation that must be responded to!

 

Illus. RSPV.

 

1. Trade in Burdens that Have Not Come from Him

 

Matthew 11:29-30, 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. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

 

• A yoke is a heavy wooden harness that fits over the shoulders of an ox, or oxen. The yoke is then attached to a piece of equipment that the oxen are to pull for plowing.

 

• A yoke is also a steering device that is placed upon an animal so that the owner have control over the direction of the animal.

 

• There were also times were two ox or oxen would be yoked together with a wooden crosspiece.

 

• The term a yoke is also referred to metaphorically to represent weight or burden upon a person.

 

• Pulling the plow, being steered by another, or tied to another.

 

• There was a yoke on the people Jesus was speaking to that was so heavy, a burden that is so great, it was unbearable.

 

• Jesus said, put my yoke upon you…In other words, there was something to carry, someone to attach to, something to do, but it was associated with rest, not the heavy unbearable burden they were carrying.

 

Matthew 11:30, For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.

 

• Perhaps you have heard the translation, “my yoke is easy.” It is a word that means comfortable, easy, better, pleasant, or fit for use.

 

Illus. Legend.

 

• Put my yoke upon you! Not the yoke you that others have around your neck.

 

• Peter referred to the Law as a yoke…

 

Acts 15:10, Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?  But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus.

 

• We also make many troubles and burdens for ourselves by how we live out our lives. But the greatest burden of all is the burden of our sin and it is a burden we simply cannot carry.

 

• Jesus offers to give us rest for our souls when he offers his yoke in exchange for ours.

 

2 Corinthians 5:21, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

 

Ephesians 2:4-5, But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).

 

• This is very difficult for many people to accept because man is not the hero of the story; God is.

 

• Jesus’s yoke is easy and his burden is light. Jesus came because we couldn’t carry our own burden.

 

Psalm 46:10, Stop striving and know that I am God…

 

1 Corinthians 1:3-5

 

Matthew 11:29…Learn from me.

 

• What do we learn from Him?

 

• We learn from Him how to build our lives, like the one building his house on the rock so when the storm comes, we will not be shaken. We learn that He is with us always, even to the end! We learn that He was sent to save us and show us the way! That He is the way the truth and the life (John 14:6), That salvation is found in no one else (Acts 4:12).

 

• We learn to take His yoke upon us because His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

 

• The question is, what yoke, what burden are you carrying and is it a burden from Christ? Are you being steered, directed, and led by Him? Or have you taken on what is not from or of Him?

 

Illus. I’ll take care of it.

 

III.    Take to the Conditions of Rest Given by Him

 

Matthew 11:29-30, For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (NASB 95’)

 

• Two times in two verses, Jesus speaks to the restful condition and is given and found when one comes to Him, trades in their burdens and learns from Him.

 

• In verse 28 He said, “I will give you rest.” And in verse 29 He said, “you will find rest for your souls.”

 

• The rest Jesus refers to is another word, anapausis, that one means what is says, rest…a tranquility of the soul. 

 

• Rest – To cease action, labor, or exertion.

 

• It is a word that can also carry the picture of soldiers who were once at war, or fighting in battle but have stopped to rest and have found a place away from the battle lines, a place of respite.

 

• Jesus gives that rest, He will lead you to that resting place, you will find it when you come to Him in weariness and burden.

 

• Then He says He is gentle, and humble in heart and in Him you will find rest for your souls.

 

• It can read this way, “you will find a resting place for your soul.”

 

• The word “soul” in Scripture is psyche which is defined, “breath of life.” In its most general sense, it means “life.” It can mean the whole person, alive or after death, but is often associated with the immaterial part of a person that is alive now and lives on after death.

 

• Jesus gives the promise of rest, and it is a promise with conditions.  The conditions are that a weary and burdened person go to Him, that they learn from Him and they are led by Him.

 

• In John 10:10, Jesus says that He came that we may have life and have it abundantly.

 

• Jesus came for that reason, but have you answered, or are you answering the call continually to come to Him and live in the conditions where you will find rest from Him?

 

• Jesus has given a call to all who are weary, would you answer that call this morning?

 

Illus. A better way.

 

Isaiah 40:28:-31, Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives strength to the weary, and to the one who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.

 

Illus. Grace.

Matthew 11:28-30

28 “Come to Me, all  who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.”