Word of Salvation – Vol. 18 No.24 – June 1972

 

Jesus’ Invitation – Order – Promise

 

Sermon by Rev. Max H. MacFarlane, Th.Grad. on Matthew 11:28-30

SCRIPTURE READING: Matthew 11:20-30

PSALTER HYMNAL: 317:1,2,3; 317:4 (creed); 406; 375 (sermon); 325:1

 

Beloved congregation,

Surely these verses from Matthew must be among the best-known and most-loved in the whole of the Bible.

“Come to me, all who labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke 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.”

“Come to me,” says Jesus.

That word “come” – a short word… but a BIG word in the Bible.  A word that’s at the very heart of the gospel; a word that’s at the very centre of God’s whole plan of salvation for mankind.  That call to COME to God… to COME BACK HOME to God.  to be RECONCILED to God… to be at PEACE, at REST with God.

The prophets of old cried “COME!”…  “Come to the waters; come, buy wine and milk without money and without price… incline your ear and COME TO ME; hear, that your soul may live…!”

And when the Saviour of the world appeared He too cried, “Come!  Come to ME!  Eat and drink of me. . . !“

And that was the cry that was to be taken up by the apostles and the whole Church after Jesus had gone back to heaven: “Come to Jesus, who died, but now is risen. . . !

“Come to ME,” says Jesus.

Different from the schoolteacher who says to an intractable pupil, “Come here.”  And the pupil comes out to the front of the class and just stands there, wondering what’s going to happen next.

But when you come to JESUS, that “beaut teacher”, who teaches you as no-one else teaches; who teaches you how to LIVE when you come to Jesus, you don’t just stand there.  No, you come to Him running; you throw yourself into His outstretched arms.  For He’s not only your Teacher: He’s also your greatest FRIEND… and your SAVIOUR… and your LORD.

* * * * *

“Come to ME,” says Jesus.

This is an invitation.  A great invitation.  But more than an invitation: it’s also an ORDER with a promise attached, as we shall see later.  And you decline this invitation, you ignore this order (and the promise) at your peril.

For this is a matter of LIFE or DEATH… a matter of EVERLASTING life, or EVERLASTING death.

How?  Why?

Because it’s only by coming to the everlasting, ever-living Jesus that you too may have everlasting life.  And if you DON’T come to Him or WON’T come to Him, then…  brother, sister, you’ve “had it”.  You’ve made your own bed – and you’ve got to lie on it.

Yes, the first thing a man, woman, girl or boy has to do is to come to Jesus.  As an act of his or her own free will.  Yet… it is really Jesus himself who makes us come through the irresistible power of His own grace.  We have to take that first step.  Yet, in taking that first step, it’s a matter of our foot being moved by HIM: at the “impulse of His love.”

Jesus says: Come to ME,
            – all  who labour and are heavy-laden;
            – all who are tired, weary, worn out, exhausted;
            – all who are oppressed, pushed around, used up, manipulated;
            – all who are overloaded with cares and responsibilities;
                        struggling to make ends meet.

No matter how hopeless, no matter how desperate your situation may appear to be, no matter how far gone you may be in some particular sin, Jesus still says it and means it: “Come to ME: take time off to come to me, each day, and I will give you REST.”

Ah, that rest!  What a relief!  To get that heavy pack off your back after a long day’s walk.  Or even just taking off your shoes after a shopping expedition and putting up your feet for a while: what bliss!

But… to be able to get rid of that burden, that load that’s pressing down on your MIND and your SOUL: to be able to get rid of THAT!  What a relief THAT is!  As Christian, in “Pilgrim’s Progress,” discovered.  How glad he was!  His reaction was to give three leaps for joy.  We even sang a song about it.

* * * * *

In a shady corner of the front lawn, at my sister’s house in Adelaide, there is a seat especially provided for those who get hot and tired walking up the hill.  And on the back of the seat these words are written: “Rest, and be thankful.”

In a similar way, Jesus is our resting-place in our journey through life.  He is our oasis in the desert.  Not a mirage, but a real oasis where we can drink, and refresh ourselves.  Not just in a physical sense, but also in a spiritual sense.

Jesus, our resting-place.  Always close by.  The next oasis in the desert may be 50 miles, 100 miles.  But not so with Jesus.  It doesn’t matter at what stage we are along the pathway of life, Jesus is there – right alongside, waiting to refresh us.

How foolish we are, if we never take time off sometime during the day or night, to rest up awhile with Jesus.  You say, “that’s all right, but I’m going flat out from morning to night.”

Well, that may be true.  But is it wise?  In the light of what Jesus says: to come to him and rest?

Can’t you stop, even for a few minutes, to rest up with Jesus?  Well, boxers as a rule are not noted for their brainpower, but they do have enough brains to realize they can’t go on fighting flat out for an hour or so without a break.  In fact they have a one-minute break to freshen up after every three minutes of boxing.

So… take a lesson from the boxer.  Better still, take a lesson from Jesus’ own life.  No-one can say He wasn’t busy about His Father’s business.  Wherever He went, crowds of people followed Him.  They needed His help.  And He never refused them.  He healed them of their sicknesses and diseases; He even restored some who had died, to life again.

All this drained even His strength and energy.  There were times when He was “dog-tired”.  HE needed rest, too.  Rest with His Father in heaven.  All through the night sometimes. . . in prayer.

Now I ask you: if Jesus, the Son of God, endued with supernatural powers of strength and stamina, needed to find rest – often – with His Father, how in the world do you think you can keep on going, day after day, week after week, without coming to Him, to Jesus, and finding rest with Him?

He knows you need that rest with Him.  That’s why He extends the invitation, which is also an order, to come to Him and find rest (that’s the promise).

What!  Do you think you’re wiser than Jesus?  Or stronger than Jesus?  Able to keep going for days, weeks, without stopping even for a few minutes to take off your shoes, so to speak, and close your eyes, and rest your head on Jesus’ breast?  No wonder you’re hard to get on with.

* * * * *

Jesus says: “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  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.’

There is a popular story to the effect that Jesus, as a young man in his carpenter’s shop in Nazareth, made the best ox-yokes in the country.  Farmers would come from miles around to buy His yokes for their oxen.

Now that may be true or not.  But this is certainly true: that His yoke for YOU fits you so well, so perfectly, you hardly realize it IS a yoke.

Instead of the clumsy, ill-fitting yoke we have made for ourselves – a yoke that keeps rubbing our skin off, and making us ill- tempered, if not fighting mad – instead of that kind of self-imposed yoke, we now find we have a yoke that sits oh-so-lightly and easily on our shoulders, not a yoke of intolerable religious rules and regulations, such as the Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day loaded onto the people: “heavy burdens, hard to bear”, but a yoke that is lined with something extra-special – and that is, the softness, the tenderness of Jesus’ love.  To which we respond in loving service.

And love makes light work of all burdens, isn’t that right?  You’d gladly climb the highest mountain, you’d cross every stream for the one you love, wouldn’t you?

* * * * *

Come to me, and rest, says Jesus.

Not with the idea of sitting around, doing nothing for the remainder of our lives.  Jesus never pensions us off.

No, not with that idea.  But (as the Greek word indicates) with this idea: of enjoying REFRESHING REST with Jesus.  So we are ready to get back into the arena, into the fight (remember the boxer!)… the fight that every Christian, young or old, has on his hands or her hands.

Today we have come here, again, to meet with Jesus our Lord in this special way that He provides – in the course of a public worship service, in the fellowship of believers.

The question is: have we come, and do we come, to meet Him, in the right frame of mind?  With all our defences and all our pretences down – flinging ourselves into His arms, and finding that rest that only He can give?

Do we come in lowliness, before His holiness?

Do we come, prepared to listen to Him and to learn from Him?  To learn how to live more faithfully and more usefully for Him?  Until our race is run, and we enter into His eternal rest?

Surely, this is how He wants it, for us.  And surely, this is how we NEED it.  So much.  More than we ourselves realize, so often.

Amen.