This evening we would turn to the Word of God at Matthew chapter 11 in the last three verses. And that's all I'll be reading. This is my text. Now, let's start reading at verse 25, get the context here. Verses 25 through 30, the Word of God. At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You've hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my father, and no one knows the son except the father, nor does anyone know the father except the son and the one to whom the son wills to reveal him. Come to me, all you who labor 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. The context has Jesus responding to the twofold reaction to the preaching of the gospel by John the Baptist, by the 12 disciples, by the 70 disciples whom Jesus sent out, and also the reaction of the gospel that Jesus himself preached and testified to with his miracles. Remember the reaction, it's always twofold. There were some who believed, but many who did not. And Jesus at this time has told us a marvelous thing about his reaction to the reaction, and that is that he thanks the Father for hiding things from the wise and prudent, that is those who deny the gospel and reject it, and for revealing them unto babes. Now our text in that context is to be seen as Jesus revealing the gospel to babes. The same ones of whom Jesus was speaking and of whose delight it was the fathers to reveal the gospel to, Jesus now calls to himself, calls the babes to himself, but he describes them as weary and heavy laden. The babes of verses 25 through 27 are the weary and heavy laden of verses 28 through 30. Jesus reveals here in this remarkable call his own heart. In fact, only here in the New Testament is Jesus' heart revealed so directly. He is meek and lowly of heart. He also gives this precious promise to the weary and heavy laden that he will give them rest. There is, beloved, something that is demanding a response, a proper response of us to the gospel preaching of this morning and of the partaking of the supper and in anticipation of what we will hear tonight, and it's this. We need to be receiving the revelation that Jesus gives to us of truth and of the gospel and of himself, and we need to be heeding the call that Jesus would give to us tonight, to the weary and heavy laden, and we need to be anticipating that he will also receive us and give us his rest. We need this so that we know the heart of the Savior for us and the rest that is peace with God of the gospel. We need this also to reveal our hearts and that we are the children of the Father. And so, beloved, there's wonderful things being said by this Savior of ours, Jesus Christ, and wonder of wonders, there's a people that's going to hear and take to heart and receive the promise of the rest of God. Sinners who are weary and heavy laden with sin, with all the burdens of life, Come to the Savior tonight and you will receive His rest. And so we want to consider the restless and the rest, want to consider the Christ and our coming to Him, and finally the promise and its certainty. So two things distinctly related in each point. First of all, so that we can understand truly what Jesus is doing here in this promise. We want to understand these doctrines of restlessness and rest. The restless are those who are the weary and heavy-laden, those who labor and are heavy-laden, in verse 28. Weary and heavy-laden, that's a good translation as well. Laboring and heavy-laden, same thing. This is a spiritual restlessness. And we need to point that out to you, and to me as well, to remind ourselves of this, because many misinterpret the whole call of the Gospel here, because they trip up and over this truth of restlessness, and weariness, and laboring. This is not just any old restlessness that is spoken of here, not just any laboring and being heavy laden, but it's a spiritual restlessness. It's not, therefore, say the restlessness of youth who can be those who are not happy with themselves, who are still finding who they are, discovering their identity, as they would seek to be Christian, or seek to be whatever they want to be, as the case may be? Or is it the restlessness that some of us have felt, and we're beyond that now, of middle age? We speak of middle age crises. And when you come around 30 and then 40, and those birthdays mark the passing of time, and the aging of your bones, you think about those things, and it's true. Those seasons of life can lead to a kind of restlessness. Or is it the restlessness of which Jesus speaks when he speaks of laboring and heavy laden ones of older lives? Certain phases of life can cause us all, humanly speaking, to be discontent, There's the winter of our discontent and the summer of our discontent and the spring and the fall. Whatever is causing our soul to be ill at ease can make us restless. We search for something. Some who are of a certain bent and bold and maybe feeling that they're invulnerable need to circle the world, they think, solo in a two-masted schooner to find themselves before they settle down. Some think they need to switch jobs and maybe every five years because they're never happy where they're at and they might not even have another job to go to, they just as soon quit and find something else so they can be at peace maybe with themselves. Maybe they'll switch their whole careers too. Others will even switch spouses even after 27 years, 47 years, whatever years. They'll switch spouses because they're not happy with their husband or their wife, and they want a new start. And obviously, they've been informed by the media in Hollywood that anything goes and anything can go, and you ought to do what's best for yourself. There's a restlessness here of body and of soul, and it's been magnified, hasn't it, with this panic-demic. That's really what it is, not a pan-demic anymore, anyway, but it's a panic-demic. Authorities and people themselves who are exposed to the media, usually, are those whose fears are stirred. There can be all kinds of restlessness, and it leads to rash decisions and not wise decisions, but all kinds of things that lead us even more than the word of God. There's a kind of religious restlessness, too. And I'm referring to the restlessness to which Jesus may be alluding here, at least in part, when he speaks of those who labor and are heavy laden and to whom he calls to come to him. By religious restlessness, I refer to the fact that there were people in those days, the Jewish people, who were under a yoke, and it was the yoke of the Old Covenant. yoke of the old covenant that said, do this and live, and if you don't do this, you die. So people were restless under that yoke and they weren't being led, and this is the real problem, by the leaders to Christ. And to the promises and the promises on which the old covenant were based and superimposed, they weren't led back to faith in Abraham. They were led to their sins and even to more sins and miseries by the imposition of the scribes and Pharisees of word upon word and letter upon letter of the law, law upon law that they invented. And in fact, they said they invented in order to keep the people holier than they would be if they just had the law. Jesus refers to this yoke and bondage of the Pharisees in Matthew 23 when he's cursing the Pharisees and verse 4. Speaking of the scribes and the Pharisees who sit in Moses' seat, he says, they bind heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on men's shoulders like a yoke, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. So this truly may be this restlessness to which Jesus is referring. The people had been led to their sins, but not to the Savior. And this was seen in the fact that the scribes and Pharisees had become the wise and prudent who were rejecting the gospel. So there was this religious restlessness. And to compound the religious restlessness was this rejection of the gospel by the scribes and Pharisees and by those who followed them. Jesus was teaching with John and the disciples that there's sin. Sin is the problem. And they were teaching as well that there's one way out, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This was the message that they had. But then what happened is that when the gospel met these sinners in all the restlessness, even though they were confronted with the truth that there was peace in Jesus, nevertheless, they themselves resisted that truth. They resisted it might and main because they did not want to be confronted with the fact of their own sin. They did not think they needed a savior. What they were looking for was something easy, maybe a political overthrow of the Roman Empire, something. They were those who in their wisdom and their prudence, which were not the wisdom and prudence of God, seeking to deny and suppress the truth as it is in Jesus. Well, there's all of that today, isn't there? There's a restlessness in this society that's rejected God and rejected the church. That compounds the restlessness of a mere pandemic. And I say it that way, meaning exactly what I say. This pandemic is a mere pandemic. I don't know how bad it is. I don't care how bad it is. The worst pandemic is the pandemic of sin. People don't want the solution to that sin, and they're going about trying to promote their vaccines and to get us all vaccinated and to wear our masks and so on, or maybe not, but this is not the solution. There's a restlessness compounded by the fact that, by and large, America and countries of the West have received the gospel, they've heard the gospel, I should say, but they want to have none of it. Well, what Jesus is referring to is not the normal restlessness of a fallen world, not the sinful restlessness of the wicked whom Isaiah says are like the troubled sea, not the religious restlessness of those who are under the burden of the law and they can't get out and they're seeking help in the wrong places. But Jesus is referring to a restlessness that he himself has worked among his people. It's a spiritual dissatisfaction. that he makes with oneself. This is the work of grace. Before that, there is this dissatisfaction maybe with self, that you don't measure up to the standards of men, and there's this dissatisfaction with this and that, a lot in life, but there's no real dissatisfaction with sin as the burden that it is that keeps you from the fellowship of God. There's no godly sorrow, in other words, that works repentance. There must be grace. Jesus has described these graced ones as babes as they receive the gospel and to whom this gospel is revealed. These babes now are said to be those who, in addition to their helplessness and their relying on God, this is a work of grace, now feel the burden of their sin and would rely upon God alone for salvation. This is the restlessness that is the good restlessness of those who need Jesus, who desire him above everything, and peace in his fellowship and arms. This is the call tonight to us, to seek that rest in Jesus. In all our restlessness, that first, the rest that is in Jesus, and receive the promise of his rest as you so restlessly and repentantly seek him. Jesus has spoken of these restless ones as the poor in spirit. Remember that? One of the first Beatitudes of Matthew chapter 5, the Sermon on the Mount. Those who mourn, that's in the like category of this description of people who labor and are heavy laden and to whom Jesus promises rest. These kinds of people that are so unusual in the world because they're the people who are being lifted out of their sin. As we saw this morning, these are the people who have been led by idols now into the fellowship of God and made to be the body of Christ, those who are once the body of this fallen race, the family of disgrace, the family of those dead in sins. These ones here described as laboring and heavy laden are those who have a problem, who know it, and who know that God has an answer. So that's the first thing, first thing. To these people is promised the best thing, rest and peace with God. Jesus says this, and he means it, of course. Come to me, all you who labor 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, and you will find rest for your souls. What a promise here, what a great thing. And this, we should remember, is just the rest and the peace that he gives, not the pieces of the world that gives rest or offers rest. Jesus gives a peace that is from heaven and a peace with heaven. There's another one who offers a kind of rest to a people that's sort of restless. Let me quote from this one. I don't often quote from people in this pulpit. I would bring the word of God. But if it illustrates a point, then all is good. Here's this one who would offer rest to certain restless ones. Maybe you can even identify this person before I do. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. that maybe some of you, many of you, have recognized. That's what's on the Statue of Liberty. Gift from France and the people of French Revolution fame to America, and it graces a beautiful statue with its lamp, New York Harbor. And you see, this is what's promised in America. rest for the political restless, those seeking asylum. This is what is promised in government stimuli, checks or whatever. This is what is promised in the best of the stars in Hollywood, promised in the drugs that are offered and that are peddled on the streets, this kind of rest and this easing of body and of soul. America, the land of dreams, promises wealth to those who would work hard, at least it used to. Now it promises wealth to whoever says, I have it coming to me. But this, is not the rest of Jesus. Sadly, I think there's many who have so misunderstood the spiritual gospel, that is the gospel of Jesus Christ, that they've interpreted Jesus' call here to anyone who has a problem. Come unto me all you who labor, who have a problem, emotional, psychological problem, whatever it is, come unto me all you who are heavy laden because your loved ones are in the hospital and you've had a bad day, a bad week, bad life, and I will give you rest. So the promise is to all who come that way. Well, the problem with that interpretation is It's mistaking what Jesus elsewhere describes as the restlessness that is something that is a product of the grace of God and a restlessness which means these people are there to receive the gospel that Jesus promises. Jesus doesn't promise political asylum. He doesn't promise rest for the weary if at the same time they're self-righteous. Remember, here this call to the rest and the weary must coincide with the call that Jesus makes when he says, I come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. This is the call of this text. It's to God's people, stirred in in their hearts by the Holy Spirit, so that they're beginning to recognize the problem of problems. They are the babes now, and now the weary babes, now the babes who are laboring under the burden of their guilt and their sin. They are promised rest in God. That's the greatest thing. It is. See, Jesus would define our terms for us. Here's the dictionary of truth. And rest is so beautiful in God. That's something. Remember this morning we saw what the Savior promises when the Holy Spirit is poured out? It says, you will see in that day, and I will be in you, and you will be in me. How close to God can you get? I will be in you, and you will be in me, even though you're in the hospital, on your deathbed. Even though you're in such a situation that there's no way out, you can't see any way out. And as so often is the case, we got ourself into this mess, even though When Christ works in us to see that problem of sin and we take personal responsibility, he's giving us to taste and see that there's this way out. It's called the peace of God, the way Jesus to heaven. Jesus is presenting here the truth that what he gives is the thing that's most needed, forgiveness, the blotting out of guilt, every single stain of guilt. so that there's no record, not in city hall, not with the feds, but no record in heaven of your ever having sinned. Why? Because Jesus is your record. Jesus is your righteousness. Jesus is your peace. Sinner, and I speak to myself, Jesus pays it all on the cross. He will pay it all to these disciples to whom he makes the promise. Jesus pays it all in all to him we owe, as we sing. Cancel the debt now and dwells us by the spirit so we know in our heart of hearts From Jesus' heart comes peace, comes rest, comes life. Children know that now early. Now as you're seeking to know who you are, how you fit, as you're seeking to know what your calling is, as you're maybe not getting it, that mere labor is a calling for the child of God who labors, works hard by faith. To all of the restless ones who are restless in the primary way of grace, there is this wonderful promise. Peace with God and then peace with your own soul. Peace with yourself. That's a hard thing to come by sometimes. I know people who never have gotten over their past. You know of anyone like that? This message is for you or for them. Jesus says here, there's one thing in the past you ought to look at, for us who look back at the cross and the resurrection, and that's that event where Jesus died for your sin. That's your history. You're taken up into that. Oh, yeah, you were born in 1989, some of you young people, 1999, whatever. But your real past is in Christ because He's everything to you. And the fact that he ever lives to make intercession for you now and gives you grace sufficient for every single day and every single situation in life, now, that's your present. And the fact that he'll be there for you, leading on, O King Eternal, that's your future. It's Jesus Christ, the Savior. the Lord and giver of salvation and life and rest in his spirit and in word. And you can be at peace then with your soul and with all the world, whatever the world throws at you. In the world you will have tribulation, Jesus says, be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. All things in the world, even if it were possible for the devil to throw things at you, and he usually throws curveballs or lots of other good things maybe, they're in the control of God and they're not going to separate you from the love and peace of God. Believe that. That's about restlessness and rest, some basics. Now, the Christ and our coming to him. We have here in our text this Christ who has revealed to us an amazing thing about himself. He can talk to God. It's not often in the Bible that we have Jesus talking directly to his father. I think four times, maybe? High priestly prayer in John 17, that's one of them. But here he says, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Can you imagine that if you're listening, Matthew's listening to this, and Jesus maybe was talking to you, and then he seems to go into this different state of being, and I speak as a man here, and has this conversation with Father, and so close and intimate, you'd think that Father was there. Well, yes. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, have revealed them to babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. It was your decree and your intention to hide things from babes, or from wise and prudent, to reveal them unto babes. All things, he says, also have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. He's just shown there that he's God, that he's a mediator in perfect fellowship with God, and that he knows what the Father does, and the Father knows what he does, and both of them are the Savior, revealing things to God's elect, Dave's heavy-laden laboring. He is that. That's the one who says, come to me, come to me, come to God, your Savior in flesh. Great Savior he is, the mediator of salvation, humbled now in his flesh, but exalted. He'll be humbled low to the grave after the crucifixion, and only after he's atoned for all sins, and then he'll rise from the dead. And then, as the church calendar goes this last Thursday, we celebrate he ascended and is given all power and authority in heaven. And there he lives at the right hand of God, God at the right hand of God, figure that. The peacemaker who is also the God, though he inhabits eternity and now at the right hand of God is exalted, he's also the God who comes down and condescends to dwell with the lowly, the babes, the laboring, the heavy laden. That's what he would remind us of when he says, I'm meek. and lowly or gentle and lowly in heart. Jesus God is Jesus God with us, meek. He waits on God himself. He reveals his love. He reveals his empathy with us. He reveals that he knows what it is to be laboring and heavy laden, not with his own sins, but with ours and the guilt of them. He knows what it is to bear the wrath of God. He knows what it is to be tempted. He's in all points tempted like we are, and yet without sin. And he wants us to know his heart. And not just his heart for himself, but his heart for you. His longing for you, his yearning for you, his desire that you come to him. All you who labor and are heavy laden, He's your sin bearer, your savior, your friend, your advocate, your great physician, your breath when no ventilator will do, your cure for things far worse than COVID. He calls. He calls here. this meek and lowly of heart, come, he says, come to me. He calls generally in the gospel. Wherever the gospel goes, he calls today in the gospel preaching. Many are called by the gospel, but few are chosen. Few respond well. Only the elect of God in whom is stirred up a heart. for God and a love for God. The call here to Christ's own laboring and heavy laden ones is a powerful call. Saving and working in these people, sinners whom he calls to repentance. What about this call? And I'll be brief here. The call is absolutely necessary, this powerful, efficacious call for sinners to be saved and to come to him. Note John 644, no one can come to me, come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. This, by the way, is one of those texts that was my conversion to Calvinism. No one can come to me. Except they have free will? No. Except they deserve to come to me? No. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And then the promise, I will raise him up at the last day. Well, the coming is described Also in John chapter 6 and verse 35, as believing. So that's the first thing we want to emphasize, the powerful call works faith. John 6 and 35, Jesus says, I'm the bread of life, he who comes to me shall never hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst. The idea of coming and believing are used parallel there. The one is the other, the other is the one. Coming to Jesus is believing him. That means you come from a place. The idea is location. You come to Jesus from what? From sin and self and stuff. All those things. From sin and self and stuff, you come and you leave them all behind and you come to Jesus. You come to Jesus by faith. by faith in his word, by trust in him. That's the wonderful gift of faith. And then Jesus says, come and you come to me and you labor and who are heavy laden. He says, now you take my yoke upon you and learn of me. What he's saying is, when you come to me, it's coming to school. You come to get educated. This is the idea. It's not the yoke of oppression that the Pharisees were guiding the people of Jewry into, but it's the yoke of a good education. It's the best education in the world, sitting at the feet of Jesus. Jesus teaching. You don't have to imagine that, beloved, because that's what he does here. And in every pulpit where the gospel is preached, he teaches us. Our ministry is preaching and teaching here. The elders teach. You parents teach, but Jesus uses this for a yoke of guidance and instruction and information that is so vital. Taking his yoke upon you means I enroll in the school in which Jesus has had my name from the foundation of the world. Now I'm where I belong. I'm not being educated at the master's feet of the Hollywood masters or the other master educators of this land. I'm not being educated principally at Yale University or Harvard or anywhere else that says they really have something to teach and they have nothing to teach. Really, nothing to teach except gender studies or some nonsense like that. But Jesus has everything good to teach. He says, you come to me, you leave everything behind, you believe in me, you believe that even though it's a hard education sometimes, it's a good one, it's the best one, and I'm gonna teach you. Only may you come to Jesus. Notice he doesn't say anything. He doesn't say anything but that. Come to me. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me. He doesn't want you to be educated in history by himself and maybe in math by another teacher or to be educated in doctrine by himself and morals by Socrates. Come to me and learn everything you need to know. Of course, that doesn't undermine schools and learning and reading, writing, and arithmetic, so we can learn the Bible more and the things of creation and providence. But the first education is at the foot of Jesus in the master's classroom. Just come to him. Leave it all. Leave all your desires, your aspirations, yourself, your sin, your stuff for the Savior. That's radical. That's in the fifth place or thereabouts, what that means. You come and you're satisfied just with His yoke upon you. And the illusion there is to oxen who would be yoked together and the The one pulling the yoke would direct them into the hard work of laboring in the field. But Jesus promises this. It's not going to be impossible. In fact, he says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. That's my final point. Isn't that great? He promises He promises rest, and he says, even though you're going to have a hard, it's a hard life, it really is. Parents don't hide that from your children, but don't overemphasize things, especially when you're having a bad time, so that everybody's down in the dumps because you're not balanced. But we have to be real. We have to be real. Indeed, we still have burdens. Jesus says, I'm going to give you rest. My yoke's easy. My burden is light. Sometimes you can wonder, well, really? I had a hard day at work. I'm having a hard life at work. I have a hard marriage, difficult children, untimely deaths. and great griefs in this world. But, but, God's word. What's true, beloved? Your burdens, is that truth? Your hardships, is that truth? Yes, it is. It's not the whole truth. Never look at your burdens and say, that's true, that's all I can see. That's a lie. Because the Word of God has come and spoken and created the world out of nothing and makes you a gospeler out of nothing. The Word of God wins. And the Word of rest gives you rest. So his yoke is easy and the Word there is kind. My yoke is kind. He's kind. When we reflect Jesus, husbands and wives and mothers and fathers and elders and pastor, we're kind to people. We deal with them in kindness. And Christ's burden is light. That word is used only one other place in the Greek language in the New Testament, and it has to do with the afflictions of this world that are light. compared to the eternal weight of glory, 2 Corinthians 4, 17. And so that I would conclude, Jesus is saying, my yoke is glorious. It's nothing compared to glory. My yoke leads to glory. My education of you, this schooling, this hard knocks, these chastenings of the father because he loves you, the difficult times when only faith can be worked and only God and his promises can be relied upon, these are for glory. Funerals are for glory for those who love God and who are the called according to his purpose. Believe that, beloved. It's sure you will find rest for your souls as you come to Jesus. I will, too. He will give you rest for your weary souls, all your labors. He will. He says so. And he will give you a heart that's after the heart of God. Isn't that beautiful? We have feasted today in the house of God with a sacrament. Now rise up. And God says he's your rest. He calls you to come. He desires that you enjoy his rest very close to his side now and forever. So come, know his rest, and give him praise as you go your way. Amen. Thanks, Lord, for the Word of God. We pray that we may know the certainty of the promise in the weariness of this life, the burdens of our sins that we deal with. Help us to exalt in the cross and to know, as we believe and trust in Jesus, the power of His Word, the power of Himself, the wonderful Messiah, the rest giver. God, we pray, call many to yourself tonight. And call us, Lord, so that we can call others on the behalf of the Savior. Lead them to the knowledge of sin and of the only Savior, and call them to come to the Lord. Hear our prayer, Father. Forgive our many sins of preaching and hearing. Bless, we pray, those who need special blessing and your fatherly care tonight and in the days to come, the losses that they bear and also the loss that they fear. Lord, hear our prayer. Be our rock and our refuge and our strength and our peace. Amen.