WEBVTT 00:00:13.200 --> 00:00:14.480 Good morning, church. 00:00:15.600 --> 00:00:17.120 My name's Justin Fawcett. 00:00:17.200 --> 00:00:20.480 So I'm the director of family ministries here, and I'm one of the elders. 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:26.960 Being the director of family ministries means I spend a lot of time in the small rooms and not a lot of time in this room. 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:30.719 So this is a little different than my normal teaching environment. 00:00:30.880 --> 00:00:35.200 So I teach a lot of middle and high school students, and I teach a lot of three through five-year-olds. 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:39.280 So you guys bear with me if this feels different than a normal sermon. 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:48.960 So today we're going to be in Matthew 11, and we're going to talk about finding rest in Christ, the rest that we find in Christ. 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:51.600 I want to thank you for being here today. 00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:53.759 Welcome you if it's your first time visiting. 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:55.359 I'm excited to worship together. 00:00:55.519 --> 00:00:59.039 Thank you to the music ministry for leading us in worship. 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:06.240 Thanks to all of the teachers that we can't see right now because they're in the small rooms teaching our children and discipling them well. 00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:09.120 Let's read together from Matthew 11. 00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:11.920 We're going to read 25 through 30. 00:01:13.600 --> 00:01:23.679 So at that time, Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you've hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:27.519 Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:39.519 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and to anyone the Son chooses to reveal him. 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:44.640 Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:56.799 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. 00:01:57.359 --> 00:01:58.480 Let's pray together. 00:02:00.799 --> 00:02:02.959 Father God, we thank you for this morning. 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:04.560 We thank you for this morning. 00:02:05.039 --> 00:02:08.719 Father, we thank you for the word that you've given us to gather around your scripture. 00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:12.319 God, that you've protected through thousands of years to meet us today. 00:02:12.640 --> 00:02:16.800 God, we ask that you would help us to understand the truth from your word. 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:19.599 Holy Spirit, that you would give me words to say. 00:02:19.760 --> 00:02:24.719 God, that you would give all of us soft hearts that are prepared to hear from you. 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:30.479 And God, that you would help us to understand who you are and who we are and how we should be changed by that. 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:32.319 It's in the name of the Son we pray. 00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:33.120 Amen. 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:43.520 Alright, so we're here in Matthew 11, and you notice we're kind of like there in the student room, I feel like there's things that we repeat over and over and over. 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:46.639 And one of the things we repeat over and over and over is context. 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:48.080 Like context is important. 00:02:48.159 --> 00:02:53.199 We're jumping into the middle of this chapter right here in this statement that Jesus is making. 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:56.080 But to understand it, we need to like roll back just a little bit. 00:02:56.240 --> 00:02:59.120 So in the beginning, you know something is hidden, right? 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:03.759 Like something, Jesus is saying something has been hidden from the wise. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:10.479 If you look up at the passage before, uh 20 through 24, Jesus lists all these cities, right? 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:19.120 He lists all these Jewish settlements that he visited, and he performed miracles, and he taught, and he did his thing, and people didn't listen. 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:22.159 People didn't hear him, people didn't have faith in what he said. 00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:31.199 And then he lists these other cities that he's comparing them to, and they were all cities that the audience of Jesus' day would have heard as like evil cities. 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:36.080 Not just sinful, I mean like really bad, like the people there do really bad stuff. 00:03:36.240 --> 00:03:52.400 And Jesus is making this comparison, and he's saying, think of this place that's really bad for these Jewish settlements, for these people that are the children of God, because they saw miracles, they heard Jesus' teaching, and they chose not to believe, it's worse for them. 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:55.919 They've had an opportunity that these evil cities have not, right? 00:03:56.080 --> 00:04:00.159 So that's a little bit about the mind of Christ as He's as we're getting into this. 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:02.800 This is what they're talking about as we jump in. 00:04:03.039 --> 00:04:08.240 Okay, this, if you've been around church, this may be something that you've heard a lot. 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:11.759 Christ is gentle and lowly, like, take on my yoke. 00:04:11.919 --> 00:04:16.400 So the challenge today, as it often is, hear this with fresh ears. 00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:22.000 If you think, like, you know what this means, and if you know what this means better than I do, like that's fantastic. 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:23.680 Hear this with fresh ears, though. 00:04:23.840 --> 00:04:25.759 Let's hear what Christ has to say. 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:26.960 Okay. 00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:31.840 Christ says here that something is hidden. 00:04:32.080 --> 00:04:36.400 The knowledge of God, the good news, the gospel, was hidden to these cities. 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:37.680 It wasn't revealed. 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:42.240 But he also says that it's been revealed to someone, right? 00:04:42.560 --> 00:04:45.280 In the student room, we do a lot of like call and response. 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:46.480 So y'all are gonna have to forgive me. 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:50.560 That's like my inclination is to say, who does he, who does he reveal it to? 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:54.480 So who do he says that it's been hidden, but it's been revealed to whom? 00:04:55.200 --> 00:04:55.760 Y'all. 00:04:56.240 --> 00:04:56.960 I'm sorry. 00:04:57.440 --> 00:04:58.240 Wait, I heard it? 00:04:58.320 --> 00:04:58.880 What did you say? 00:04:59.440 --> 00:05:00.080 Little children. 00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:00.640 That's right. 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:07.920 So he says, these cities that are trusting in being descendants of Abraham, that's how they think they're made right with God. 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:09.280 They're trusting in that. 00:05:09.440 --> 00:05:12.880 They think themselves wise, they think they've got everything under control. 00:05:13.520 --> 00:05:15.040 The truth is hidden from them. 00:05:15.200 --> 00:05:17.840 They can't see it because of that position of their heart. 00:05:18.080 --> 00:05:22.000 But then to little children, it's been revealed, right? 00:05:22.320 --> 00:05:28.080 Little children here doesn't mean physically little children, though God does reveal the truth to little children. 00:05:28.320 --> 00:05:31.920 But he's saying that we should be like little children. 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:34.560 We should think of ourselves more like little children. 00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:49.200 Now, these cities that are trusting in Abraham and trusting, trusting in their uh their being descendants of Abraham, they they're not, okay, the difference is they're not trusting God as little children. 00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:52.720 Little children rely on the adults around them, right? 00:05:53.040 --> 00:06:00.880 Like toddlers may think that they can go, you know, make macaroni and cheese in the microwave, but after they try, what do they do? 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:03.440 Like they ask mom and dad for help, right? 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:05.360 Christ here is telling us the same. 00:06:05.520 --> 00:06:13.280 Like when we uh when we abandon our self-reliance and turn to God, that's when we can see the truth of the gospel. 00:06:13.840 --> 00:06:17.600 Okay, so and then in verse 27, we're all still in context. 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:20.080 We're really talking about 28 and 30 here. 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:26.960 But in verse 27, he says, verse 27, all things have been handed over to me by my father. 00:06:27.440 --> 00:06:34.960 No one knows the son except the father, and no one knows the father except the son, and to anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal them. 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:38.800 Okay, so no one knows the son except for who? 00:06:39.840 --> 00:06:41.120 The father, that's right. 00:06:41.280 --> 00:06:43.840 Now, it doesn't mean like I know a person. 00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:53.360 Like, if you've ever been to Kroger and like you see someone that you used to work with, you know, and you're like, or you see someone you used to live down the street from, you've had this experience, and you're like, oh, I know that guy. 00:06:53.440 --> 00:06:56.320 Like, his name is Chris or something. 00:06:56.880 --> 00:06:57.600 You know what I mean? 00:06:57.680 --> 00:06:59.920 Like, I'm I know him, kind of, right? 00:07:00.080 --> 00:07:01.280 That's not what he's saying here. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:02.880 He's saying deeply know. 00:07:03.040 --> 00:07:10.320 Know the identity of, know who Christ is, know his heart, his heart for God and his heart for people, know his now. 00:07:10.400 --> 00:07:12.560 Who truly knows the Father? 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:14.720 The Son. 00:07:14.880 --> 00:07:15.360 That's right. 00:07:15.440 --> 00:07:17.280 That's y'all, we're gonna do this the whole time. 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:18.080 I'm sorry. 00:07:18.320 --> 00:07:19.040 That's right. 00:07:19.280 --> 00:07:22.400 The only one that truly knows the Father is the Son. 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:24.000 So we've got this closed system. 00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:24.960 Who knows the Father? 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:25.440 The Son. 00:07:25.520 --> 00:07:26.800 Who knows the Son, the Father? 00:07:26.960 --> 00:07:27.600 They know each other. 00:07:27.760 --> 00:07:29.040 They know each other perfectly, right? 00:07:29.120 --> 00:07:30.800 They're both God and everything. 00:07:30.960 --> 00:07:34.640 But then, who else does it say knows the Father? 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:38.480 I heard it somewhere. 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:42.240 I'm patient, y'all. 00:07:43.520 --> 00:07:44.560 Who does okay? 00:07:44.640 --> 00:07:49.520 The father knows the son, the son knows the father, and who else knows the father? 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:53.120 Those he chooses to reveal the father to. 00:07:53.200 --> 00:07:53.600 That's right. 00:07:53.760 --> 00:07:56.080 Okay, so we've got this closed system of the father and the son. 00:07:56.240 --> 00:07:59.920 They know each other, but then we are invited into this system. 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:02.720 Think of the absurdity of what we've just read. 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:10.800 That God, the Father and the Son, know each other perfectly, and now we are invited to know the Father through the Son. 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:11.600 Right? 00:08:11.840 --> 00:08:16.560 Okay, now we get to verses 28 and 30, which is really where we're gonna spend our time today. 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:18.160 Let me read them for us. 00:08:18.800 --> 00:08:23.040 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 00:08:23.280 --> 00:08:26.320 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:30.720 For I'm gentle and lowly in heart, you will find rest for your souls. 00:08:30.960 --> 00:08:34.000 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. 00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:36.799 Okay, Christ tells us to do three things here. 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:39.519 He invites us, he commands us to do three things. 00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:44.080 He tells us to come, he tells us to take, and he tells us to learn. 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:47.519 So, point number one, we're gonna talk about come. 00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:54.639 In Matthew 11, 28, Jesus says, Come to me. 00:08:55.519 --> 00:09:02.240 The God of the universe, the creator of all things, invites us to come to him. 00:09:03.680 --> 00:09:10.240 As people who have maybe been around church, or at least people who have been around the South, this doesn't feel like new news, right? 00:09:10.399 --> 00:09:13.040 Like, yeah, Jesus loves us, Jesus says, Come to us. 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:16.399 For a moment, like, imagine that though. 00:09:16.800 --> 00:09:18.720 God who made all things. 00:09:19.040 --> 00:09:34.879 God who made us, but God who made all of creation, God who made the deepest parts of the solar system, God who is unimaginably powerful, and God who is self-sufficient, who needs nothing from us, invites us to come to Him. 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:41.840 What requirement does Jesus put on us before we can come to Him? 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:48.240 Now, Jesus in the gospel, it's recounting what He said, recounting what He did. 00:09:48.480 --> 00:09:57.600 But Christ, as a person who actually lived this and actually said this, He could have said anything, and as God has the authority to say anything He wants, right? 00:09:57.920 --> 00:10:02.879 So He could have said, Come to me when you're good enough. 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:08.960 Come to me when your life stops being quite so messy and you're ready, then you can come to me. 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:17.200 Or he could have said, Come to me when you know enough, when you've studied enough, when you feel like you really understand the Bible and what it's saying. 00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:20.160 That's something he didn't say, but something he could have said. 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:25.360 He could have said, Come to me when all of your fears and your anxieties are solved. 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:31.920 When the mess inside your heart that nobody else can see, once that's relieved, then come. 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:37.040 He doesn't tell us to come to him when we've got things figured out. 00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:39.120 He says, Come to me. 00:10:39.920 --> 00:10:48.480 And the group that he calls to himself is those who are labor, those who labor and are heavy laden. 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:59.680 So labor and heavy laden, we've got this image of someone who's worked hard and someone who has a heavy weight on their shoulders, someone who's carrying something heavy. 00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:02.720 This is the group. 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:05.759 This is the group that Christ calls to himself. 00:11:06.560 --> 00:11:08.320 Sorry, Steve talks about allergies. 00:11:08.399 --> 00:11:10.000 It's allergy season. 00:11:13.040 --> 00:11:18.399 But seriously, though, at no point does he say that we have to be good enough to come to him. 00:11:18.560 --> 00:11:20.320 He invites us as we are. 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:26.800 Now, remember, before this, Christ was talking about who knows the Father? 00:11:27.920 --> 00:11:28.800 Who knows the Father? 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:29.680 The Son, that's right. 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:30.879 Who knows the Son? 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:35.519 The Father, that's right, and then anybody he invites to know the Father. 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:46.320 So anyone who knows God has been invited by Jesus, invited by the Son to know God, and the next thing he says is, guess who I want to come to me? 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:48.800 Guess who I want to reveal the Father to? 00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:51.600 Those who labor and are heavy laden. 00:11:55.200 --> 00:11:59.040 He didn't invite, he invited everyone, okay? 00:11:59.200 --> 00:12:01.279 Like he invited all to come to himself. 00:12:01.680 --> 00:12:06.720 But by name, he didn't say religious leaders who have devoted their entire lives to the church. 00:12:06.879 --> 00:12:09.360 That's who gets to come and know the Father. 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:16.399 He didn't say scholars who are experts in the Bible, and he didn't say people who have never made mistakes in life. 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:20.480 Instead, he says, Come to me, those who are tired. 00:12:20.800 --> 00:12:26.879 Now, labor here, physical labor to be sure, but we're talking about spiritual labor. 00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:30.399 For his original audience, remember, he's talking to Jewish people, right? 00:12:30.560 --> 00:12:36.000 He's talking to people who are following the Old Testament and following the laws of the Old Testament. 00:12:36.320 --> 00:12:45.360 The spiritual labor that they would be doing, the spiritual labor that they would have been exhausted by, following all of the rules of the Old Testament. 00:12:45.519 --> 00:12:54.879 Now remember, Christ, he talked to the people, but he also talked to the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes, the people that were in the temples, right? 00:12:55.120 --> 00:13:17.040 Now the Pharisees, they were a group that was had power at the time, but they took the Old Testament, and I believe some probably out of a good heart, and many not out of a good heart, said, if we're going to obey all the rules of the Old Testament, and there are many rules in the Old Testament, the way that we're going to do that is we're going to make extra rules on top of that. 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:20.960 So it says, the Sabbath, okay, take Sundays, keep it holy. 00:13:21.040 --> 00:13:23.440 I mean, it wasn't Sunday for them, but you got what I'm saying, right? 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:26.560 The Sabbath, take one day a week and keep it holy. 00:13:26.800 --> 00:13:30.000 So the Pharisees come alongside and say, Well, how are we going to do that? 00:13:30.160 --> 00:13:35.519 Let's make a whole lot of rules about how we're going to keep the Sabbath holy, how we're going to obey the Sabbath. 00:13:35.920 --> 00:13:41.519 Okay, uh, if we don't work on the Sabbath, walking, you know, 10 paces, that's not working. 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:44.480 But walking 11 paces, that feels a lot like work. 00:13:44.639 --> 00:13:45.519 So there we go. 00:13:45.680 --> 00:13:48.240 And you see how they start creating these other rules. 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:55.680 The number of rules that the Jewish people were seeking to follow or attempting to follow was astronomical and impossible. 00:13:55.920 --> 00:14:05.440 So this labor, this uh this constant striving to be good enough, this constant effort to make yourself right before God, people were exhausted. 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:15.279 And Jesus says to them, you who are exhausted, you who are exhausted of trying to be good enough, a weight that you can't carry on your own, come to me. 00:14:17.840 --> 00:14:24.560 For us, so for them, the law, all the rules, the Pharisees, that's how they were spiritually tired. 00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:38.160 For us, uh, even if we don't try to follow all the rules of the Old Testament, because I think most of us in here, like by the letter of the law, don't do that, we still try to justify ourselves before each other and before God. 00:14:38.399 --> 00:14:44.480 We still try to, we try to live right, and when we don't live right, we say, but you know, you don't understand the circumstances. 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:47.840 I made this decision because of, you know, da da da da da. 00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:49.279 That's the law. 00:14:49.440 --> 00:14:54.399 Like if you look at the the body of what Jesus said in the whole New Testament, he's not telling us to abandon the law. 00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:58.320 He's not saying, you know, free reign, you guys were tired, it was really hard. 00:14:58.560 --> 00:14:58.879 Okay. 00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:01.040 Free for all, everybody do whatever. 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:02.879 He's not saying that in the slightest. 00:15:03.040 --> 00:15:10.960 He's saying as we as we uh as we seek to live lives that honor God, it doesn't have to be in a way that crushes us. 00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:13.440 He's offering us something different. 00:15:14.240 --> 00:15:16.720 Now Jesus offers us a promise. 00:15:17.279 --> 00:15:21.040 He says, Oh, do I have to turn my page? 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:21.360 No. 00:15:21.519 --> 00:15:21.840 Okay. 00:15:22.080 --> 00:15:27.279 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and what does he say he's gonna do? 00:15:30.800 --> 00:15:32.320 He's gonna give us rest. 00:15:32.720 --> 00:15:33.200 Right? 00:15:33.519 --> 00:15:45.519 Okay, so these people that were exhausted, these people that carry the weight of the law, these people that carry the weight of trying to justify themselves before God and before others, he says, Come to me and I'll give you rest. 00:15:45.920 --> 00:15:48.080 Okay, so the first thing he tells us is to come. 00:15:48.160 --> 00:15:48.960 Let's look further. 00:15:49.120 --> 00:15:50.080 Uh, point two. 00:15:50.560 --> 00:15:51.920 He tells us to take. 00:15:52.080 --> 00:15:54.639 He tells us to take on his yoke. 00:15:54.879 --> 00:15:59.440 Now, um I'm not a farmer, but I did grow up around farms. 00:15:59.680 --> 00:16:02.960 Even still, I didn't grow up around yokes. 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:06.160 Like, has anybody ever yoked an animal before? 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:06.800 No? 00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:09.519 Okay, I thought sincerely someone may raise their hand. 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:11.920 Like, that's still a thing, but it's not something we do very much. 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:16.879 So I personally have never yoked an animal, so I read a lot about that this week. 00:16:17.040 --> 00:16:25.279 Um, kids, uh, if you didn't know, on the back uh table back there behind the uh behind the camera, there's a bunch of coloring pages. 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:27.840 If you didn't grab one of those, you're free to do that now. 00:16:27.920 --> 00:16:29.279 There's clipboards and stuff. 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:31.920 Did anyone grab the one with the picture of the ox on it? 00:16:32.160 --> 00:16:33.279 Has anybody got one of this? 00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:34.240 Can you hold it up? 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:35.200 anybody? 00:16:35.840 --> 00:16:36.240 Really? 00:16:36.399 --> 00:16:37.759 Yeah, I see Rose back there. 00:16:37.920 --> 00:16:39.759 Yep, I see Ronald and what he's been working on. 00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:40.879 Or excuse me, Landon. 00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:41.920 Yeah, that's really good. 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:49.040 So the yoke, if you look at that picture, a yoke was a wooden bar that went across the neck of an animal. 00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:51.440 And that that wasn't just to put it there. 00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:55.120 The yoke, the purpose of the yoke was that it could do work, okay? 00:16:55.279 --> 00:17:01.440 If you had to plow a field and you have this plow, you yoke it to an animal, like an ox, to pull it for you. 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:04.399 Because, I mean, we fickle humans can't pull a plow. 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:06.639 We need a big beast to do that, right? 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:08.639 So that was the purpose of a yoke. 00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:12.079 In Jesus' time, uh, they did have a single yoke. 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:19.200 Like if we think in our heads about Old West movies and they're like plowing a field with an ox, you know, and there's a single ox pulling it. 00:17:19.360 --> 00:17:24.559 That was a thing in Jesus' time, but more commonly there was a yoke that held two animals, a double yoke. 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:29.839 So that goes across the shoulders of one creature, and then there's another creature that goes across as well. 00:17:30.079 --> 00:17:32.160 There's a bar in the center and they're pulling something. 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:32.960 Does that make sense? 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:34.319 Everybody, you gotta nod. 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:35.279 Like does that make sense? 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:38.960 Like you've seen, you you can imagine your mind what I'm talking about, a yoke. 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:43.440 Okay, so this original audience, they lived in a farming society. 00:17:43.759 --> 00:17:59.039 When he says yoke, take my yoke, the image that probably comes to the mind for these people is that two two yoke, two oxes, and pulling like a plow or pulling a cart, that cart would have had like a single axle, just two wheels on it. 00:17:59.200 --> 00:18:04.079 Like if you think of Westerns, they had the the wagons with four wheels with two axles. 00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:04.799 You know what I'm saying? 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:06.000 Yeah, I'm gonna make you nod. 00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:06.799 I'm sorry, y'all. 00:18:06.880 --> 00:18:07.680 You know what I'm talking about? 00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:09.360 Like you think like gunsmoke or something? 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:11.200 Yeah, they've got a covered wagon. 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:12.480 This is different than that. 00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:15.279 This is a cart with a single axle and two wheels, right? 00:18:15.519 --> 00:18:24.079 Now, when when we think about this yoke that's sitting on the shoulders of oxen, imagine a cart that has just two wheels, right? 00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:28.720 That means that like just with this axle, as the weight shifts, it pivots, right? 00:18:29.279 --> 00:18:31.120 Right, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:32.480 It doesn't have the four wheels. 00:18:32.559 --> 00:18:36.880 Like your car when you're driving down the road, if it's working properly, doesn't pivot back and forth. 00:18:36.960 --> 00:18:40.079 Like it might bounce a little bit, but like you've got four wheels on the ground, you're good. 00:18:40.319 --> 00:18:42.559 Two wheels, that weight's gonna shift. 00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:52.640 What that means is that ox who's in front, who has that bar across his shoulders, he's not just pulling, it's not just like a rope and he's pulling it behind him, he's feeling the weight of that cart. 00:18:52.799 --> 00:18:57.200 Like as that weight shifts, like it's literally on the shoulders of the ox. 00:18:57.360 --> 00:19:05.200 Now, for us, because we're not farmers, like we have to kind of flesh out this image, for Jesus' original audience, this was their day-to-day life. 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:07.200 Like he says, take on my yoke. 00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:11.120 This is what they hear, this is what they see in their mind's eye. 00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:21.920 Now, an ox that's pulling a cart or an ox that's pulling a cloud, a crowd, a crowd, a plow, an ox is pulling a plow. 00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:26.799 Um, do you why does an ox do that? 00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:34.480 Like, does an ox voluntarily just like walk out of the barn and is like, man, I hope I get a heavy weight today? 00:19:35.120 --> 00:19:39.920 Like, I hope something crushing is on my shoulders and I just get to drag it through the earth. 00:19:40.079 --> 00:19:44.000 You know, that's just satisfaction for a job well done, you know? 00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:47.200 Like, no, that's not what an ox is doing. 00:19:48.559 --> 00:19:51.279 How does Jesus look at verse 30? 00:19:51.600 --> 00:19:57.120 So with that mind of what a yoke is, that mind of the experience of an ox, let's read verse 30. 00:19:57.360 --> 00:20:02.559 Jesus says, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. 00:20:04.559 --> 00:20:07.039 We're starting here to see what Jesus is talking about. 00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:11.120 His original audience, everything we've talked about up to this point, they just know automatically. 00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:13.039 We have to kind of work through it, right? 00:20:13.680 --> 00:20:18.559 But his original audience is they're thinking about an ox putting on a yoke. 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:23.759 It's a burden, it's heavy, it's something the ox may even fight against as you're trying to put it on. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:29.839 He says, Take on my yoke, because my yoke is easy and my burdens light. 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:37.039 The weight of self-justification, the weight of being right before God is backbreaking. 00:20:37.360 --> 00:20:39.759 Christ here is offering us another way. 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:41.360 All right, point three. 00:20:41.600 --> 00:20:47.839 We've talked about coming to Jesus, we've talked about taking on his yoke, and then here, learn from him. 00:20:50.079 --> 00:20:54.480 Verse 28 again, come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 00:20:54.720 --> 00:21:03.120 29, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:07.360 For my yoke is easy, and my burdens light. 00:21:07.600 --> 00:21:16.799 So Jesus here says, in taking a taking his yoke, metaphorically speaking, like in taking his yoke, our job is to learn from him. 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:21.279 So one reason that you yoke an animal is to direct them. 00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:32.559 Now imagine the absurdity if the farmer has the field to plow and he pulls out the plow and he pulls out the ox and he says, Good luck, you know, Jimothy, the ox, good luck. 00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:37.920 Uh, I need to get this plowed, I need this acre plowed, I'll see you this afternoon, like I'm gonna go have a nap. 00:21:38.160 --> 00:21:40.160 When he comes back, what is he gonna find? 00:21:40.400 --> 00:21:42.240 The ox just standing there, right? 00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:46.400 Or more likely the ox has moseied away and doing its ox thing. 00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:51.600 If this work needs to be done, the ox needs to be put into the yoke, right? 00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:54.400 Like, it's not gonna happen on its own. 00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:57.360 So, one reason to yoke an animal is to direct them. 00:21:57.600 --> 00:22:04.559 Like, even if he puts the ox in the yoke, he's the ox still needs direction in what to do. 00:22:05.039 --> 00:22:11.920 Choosing our own path in life, choosing the way that we choose to live, is something else that can be exhausting. 00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:18.559 Using our own moral framework for life, what we decide is right and wrong, is exhausting. 00:22:18.799 --> 00:22:22.640 Christ is offering to teach us another way to live. 00:22:22.799 --> 00:22:28.160 But remember, verse 30, this way that Christ is teaching us to live is not supposed to be a burden. 00:22:28.319 --> 00:22:32.000 The way he's teaching us to live is supposed to be easy. 00:22:32.319 --> 00:22:34.240 It's not just supposed to be, it is. 00:22:34.400 --> 00:22:42.559 So when we, I say that on the front end, when we hear this and we say, right, but I feel like what Christ is saying feels really heavy, right? 00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:43.839 That's not a problem with Jesus. 00:22:43.920 --> 00:22:45.279 That's a problem with what we're understanding. 00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:46.640 So we have to hang in there. 00:22:46.799 --> 00:22:50.880 Now, Jesus here, he calls himself gentle and lowly in heart. 00:22:51.120 --> 00:22:54.480 Another way to translate that would be gentle and humble in heart. 00:22:54.559 --> 00:22:58.960 Depending on what Bible you have this morning, it may even say that humble in heart instead of lowly. 00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:03.200 So what does it mean that Jesus is gentle and lowly in heart? 00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:06.960 The women's ministry is like, we're actually going to read a book about that this summer. 00:23:07.039 --> 00:23:08.400 They're reading gentle and lowly. 00:23:08.480 --> 00:23:11.680 And I saw this morning, I think there's some copies on the back desk. 00:23:11.839 --> 00:23:14.160 If you haven't read that book, grab a copy, please. 00:23:14.240 --> 00:23:16.799 Like it's it's actually it's actually really, really good. 00:23:17.120 --> 00:23:21.519 But when Jesus calls himself gentle and lowly, what does that mean? 00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:29.759 So imagine this image that Jesus is using to compare how he wants to lead people, how he wants to teach people, with a farmer, right? 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:31.600 That's the framework that he's been building. 00:23:31.680 --> 00:23:32.720 So let's imagine that. 00:23:32.880 --> 00:23:36.960 What a farmer who's gentle and lowly, what would that look like? 00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:44.960 Like if a farmer invites an ox out of the barn and yokes it and then just is terrible to the ox, right? 00:23:45.120 --> 00:23:48.160 Like he's got a stick and he's just like, ah, dude, do the thing, right? 00:23:48.319 --> 00:23:49.839 That's not gentle and lowly. 00:23:50.000 --> 00:24:00.559 Like a farmer who's cruel to his animals, a farmer who beats an ox into submission, and a farmer who forces him to do this work under pain of death, right? 00:24:01.039 --> 00:24:02.720 That's not what Jesus is saying here. 00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:06.079 Jesus says that he's humble in heart and he's gentle. 00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:11.519 He's not a cruel farmer who beats his animals into submissions, to submission. 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:17.039 So uh Friday night, I think it was Friday night, uh, we let the dogs out. 00:24:17.120 --> 00:24:19.279 It was kind of late at night, it's like 9.15. 00:24:19.360 --> 00:24:22.960 I didn't ask the dogs for permission to share this story, so don't tell them. 00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:28.480 But uh, we let them out in the backyard, it's like 9.15, and they go crazy. 00:24:28.640 --> 00:24:30.400 They just start barking their heads off. 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:32.559 And I'm afraid they're gonna wake up the entire neighborhood. 00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:36.960 So we look out and there's a snake in the middle of the backyard, and it's caught something. 00:24:37.120 --> 00:24:38.240 I see Miss Marsha's face. 00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:40.640 Sorry, but like, uh, my face is pretty similar. 00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:51.279 But there's this snake that's caught something and it's doing its snake thing, and the dogs are furious that it's here, and it's this, you know, standoff in the backyard at 915, and it's tense, and the neighbors lights. 00:24:51.440 --> 00:24:52.880 I'm afraid they're about to come on. 00:24:53.039 --> 00:24:56.079 So I'm telling the dogs, hey, it's it's fine. 00:24:56.240 --> 00:24:57.759 You gotta come in the house, right? 00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:02.160 We have two dogs, and one of them's reluctantly like, All right, I gotcha. 00:25:02.319 --> 00:25:04.720 I hear what you're saying, I'm gonna come in the house. 00:25:04.880 --> 00:25:06.720 The other dog is not so convinced. 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:11.920 She's about this tall, and she's ferocious, and she's like, right? 00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:18.000 In that moment, I was not gentle and lowly in heart with this dog, right? 00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:23.200 Like, the first dog comes in and it's all as well, you know, peace, peace be upon you. 00:25:23.360 --> 00:25:29.200 And then the second dog, I'm like, I'm gonna have to pick this thing up, kicking and screaming and bring it inside. 00:25:29.519 --> 00:25:34.720 Christ here, he's saying that he's not dragging us kicking and screaming. 00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:36.240 He's gentle and lowly. 00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:46.720 He's not gonna, if if in in this metaphor inside of a metaphor, if Christ is in the backyard with the dogs, like he's not, you know, kicking them and pushing them. 00:25:46.880 --> 00:25:48.799 He's being gentle and lowly. 00:25:50.400 --> 00:25:54.559 He's a kind of Savior who offers his yoke as a better way. 00:25:55.200 --> 00:26:02.079 If we look at the narrative of Scripture from the beginning, the yoke that he's offering is what was originally intended. 00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:13.120 He's offering us how to make things right, not to do, not new rules, how to do things the way they were intended to be in the beginning before sin entered the world, before everything went wrong. 00:26:13.920 --> 00:26:18.000 Now, there's a bit of absurdity to what Christ is saying. 00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:20.400 Now, I don't say that, being disrespectful. 00:26:20.559 --> 00:26:24.720 I'd say that the image he's created is a little ridiculous. 00:26:25.039 --> 00:26:28.799 He says, if you're tired, come to me. 00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:30.880 I have a yoke, right? 00:26:31.440 --> 00:26:35.440 What ox goes to the farmer and says, It's been a long week. 00:26:35.519 --> 00:26:38.240 We've plowed a lot of fields, you know what I really need? 00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:39.920 I need a yoke. 00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:43.279 I need you to put something heavy on my shoulders and get to work. 00:26:43.440 --> 00:26:45.759 Like, that's how I'm gonna find rest today. 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:47.839 Like, that's it's absurd. 00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:53.120 He's saying the way we find rest is this yoke that he wants to put upon us. 00:26:53.360 --> 00:26:58.400 In that book, Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortland, he calls it an unyoke. 00:26:58.559 --> 00:27:03.279 The yoke of Christ is an unyoke, and the burden of Christ is an unburden. 00:27:03.839 --> 00:27:11.279 Somehow, when we step into the yoke of Christ, it's not that we feel additional pressure on our shoulders from this yoke. 00:27:11.440 --> 00:27:17.759 Somehow, when we step into the yoke of Christ, the pressures that we had before feel less. 00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:26.720 Acts 15, 10, Peter's talking to the council at Jerusalem. 00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:37.839 And he says, So why are you now challenging God by burden by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? 00:27:38.079 --> 00:27:41.839 So Peter here in Acts is calling the law a yoke. 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:48.960 And he says that yoke was something that he nor the Jewish people, God's people, it's something that they couldn't bear. 00:27:52.640 --> 00:27:56.960 Jesus here, he's telling us something really unique. 00:27:57.920 --> 00:28:02.480 Now, he says learn from him is part of the reason we're putting on this yoke. 00:28:02.799 --> 00:28:07.279 The farmers of the day, something that they would have understood when he says that, learn from me. 00:28:07.440 --> 00:28:19.279 If you're putting an ox in a yoke, uh, you have a young ox, you know, that's not used to this work, a young ox that's not used to that burden on its shoulders, uh, it would often fight against the yoke, right? 00:28:19.360 --> 00:28:20.400 I mean, that that makes sense. 00:28:20.559 --> 00:28:23.120 You put something heavy on my shoulders, I'm probably gonna fight you too. 00:28:23.279 --> 00:28:27.920 But you put this burden on their shoulders, the ox would want to fight away from it. 00:28:28.079 --> 00:28:33.120 You pair a younger, less experienced ox with an older ox that understands what it's doing. 00:28:33.200 --> 00:28:37.360 And it understands when you put the yoke on its shoulders, it understands what it's expected of him. 00:28:37.440 --> 00:28:40.000 So the young ox can learn from the old ox, right? 00:28:40.160 --> 00:28:44.960 So here when it talks about the yoke of Christ, it is it's Christ's yoke. 00:28:45.200 --> 00:28:47.360 Christ is the farmer in this image. 00:28:47.519 --> 00:28:50.880 Christ is the one who's putting the yoke on there and directing the work. 00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:58.400 But the gospel is that Christ isn't just the farmer, Christ has entered the yoke with us. 00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:07.759 Christ is so oxen, I um I can be a little bit of a science nerd. 00:29:07.839 --> 00:29:14.880