The passage in scripture that I invite you to turn to this morning is Matthew chapter 11, Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 through 30. I'm sure that for many of you, this is a very familiar passage. A lot of times I tell people I'm hesitant to pick out a favorite part of the Bible because there are so many good parts and all of God's Word is profitable and is helpful to us. But this is a passage that's especially dear to my heart and so many times has brought me comfort. Maybe it's a familiar passage to you, too. Even for the passages that are familiar, the passages that we know well, we need God's help to really understand. And so I want to ask you to join me in prayer before we read the scripture and we'll ask God to help us understand his word. Let's pray. Father, we are so thankful for your word. If you had not given us a revelation of yourself, we would be without hope. We we know that even the very best human minds and and and even lots and lots of learning can still. Can still lead to ignorance because we have sinful hearts. And so we are very, very thankful that you've given us your truth. We're very, very thankful that you have revealed yourself to us. We're very, very thankful for your Holy Spirit who lives in us. That you have said specifically helps us to understand your word. And so, Father, now we we pray that your spirit would open up the eyes of our hearts. that we would be able to understand what Jesus is teaching us here. I pray, Father, for my own heart and for all of our hearts that we would hear Jesus' voice to us today. And I pray that you would help us not only to hear and to understand, I pray, Father, that you would change our hearts with your truth that our lives would be different, and that we would experience all that Jesus promises us here. Please help us. We ask this in Jesus' precious name. And God's people say, Amen. Matthew 11, verse 28. This is what Jesus says. 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. May God bless the reading and the hearing of His Word. If you know Mike at all, you know that what I do during the week is drive nails and dig holes and anything else that we're asked to do in building houses. And one of the things that happens when you're involved in construction is you get splinters. A lot of you have gotten splinters too. working in your garden or working around the house, you've got a thorn or a splinter or something and sometimes you look at that splinter and you think you can see it and you pull it out and you think everything's going to be fine, but then a day or two goes by and it's still kind of irritated and sore and you find out you have to dig a little deeper to really get it out. Sometimes the scripture is like that too. The first time you read it, you think, well, that seems pretty simple. It seems pretty obvious. But as time goes on, you realize you have to dig deeper. You have to go a little further in figuring out not only what Jesus is saying, but how it applies to your heart and your life. For a lot of my years, not only as a Christian, but even as a pastor, I would look at verses like this and I would think, well, Jesus is primarily talking to people who don't believe in Him. And He's inviting them to make a decision to follow Him. And that is a part of the meaning here. But there's more than that. This is a passage for those of you who already know Jesus. And you believe in Jesus. You love Him. It's to you also that Jesus says, come to Me. Take My yoke on you. Learn from Me. Jesus is inviting all of us to find rest in Him. And that's what I want to encourage you with this morning. Now, it could be that whenever you have a number of people gathered together, even people who have been to church before, it's possible that there may be someone here who you know a lot about Jesus, but you've never really trusted in him. And if that is your situation, this passage is for you. But it's also for those of you who have known Jesus a long time. And so I want to, with you, dig into this passage. Let's dig deeper and see what Jesus is saying, because I believe that for every one of us here, this passage has application. I don't think there's a one of us here who can say, I don't need Jesus. I don't need any more rest for my soul. I'm already perfectly contented and perfectly joyful. We all need this somewhere in our hearts and in our lives. So let's dig in. First question that we have to ask. Well, let me back up just a minute. I don't exactly have three points to this sermon. You know, Presbyterian pastors, we always have three points to our sermon, right? I don't have three points laid out, but there are three things I want you to be listening for. As we go through this passage, I want you to listen for the invitation. I want you to listen for the promise. I want you to listen for a question. And I hope all that will become clear as we go through. But first of all, if we're going to understand what Jesus is teaching us here, one of the things we have to figure out is who's he talking to and what is he asking them to do? Again, a passage that we read many times and we're familiar with, we can just read right over the words and not really think about what they're saying. But I want to ask you just about that first word come. We need to know who Jesus is saying that to, but we also need to know where they are, because it doesn't make sense to say come if you're not somewhere, right? If you're already here this morning, it wouldn't do any good for me to say, hey, why don't you come to church this morning? You're already here. So Jesus is talking to people who are physically in his presence. And he's asking them to come to him. If we're going to understand what it means when he says, come to me, we have to understand something about the yoke, right? Because it's all connected. Come to me and take my yoke upon you. So what is a yoke? Probably all of you know what a yoke is. You've seen it. Maybe some of you even used it. It wasn't too many years ago that a lot of people around here still used animals for farming. So you've seen a yoke. It's that big wooden thing that you strap on an animal or two animals and you use it to pull a plow or a wagon or something. A yoke is a physical way of harnessing some horses or cows or ox or whatever you have to a load. A yoke is a picture of work, isn't it? It's a picture of service. The Bible uses the word yoke in that way, but it also uses the word yoke to refer to something that's not a physical thing. For example, in First Timothy chapter six, Paul talks about the relationship of masters and slaves. And in that passage, he refers to servants as those who are under the yoke. Now, they didn't wear a wooden yoke, but they were serving their master. So the yoke can not only mean a physical piece of wood, can also mean just serving. whose service you are under, who you are working for. In Acts chapter 15, there's a big controversy in the early church, and the controversy much of the time was over the fact that people were believing in Jesus who hadn't been brought up in the synagogue. They weren't Jewish. They didn't have that experience of studying the law of Moses. They weren't a part of that worship, the Jewish worship. They hadn't been circumcised. They were Gentiles. They were considered outsiders. And as the apostles began to preach, people who had not been raised as Jews began to believe in the Messiah who had come through the Jews, Jesus. And so a controversy that started is the message was believe in Jesus and you'll be saved from your sins. Well, the people who have that Jewish heritage, the Pharisees, they said you need to believe in Jesus. Plus, you need to be circumcised. Plus, you need to obey the law of Moses. And that was a big controversy because the apostles were preaching. Now, you just need to believe in Jesus. That's how you can be forgiven of your sin. And so as they had this discussion and debate in Acts chapter 15, we're told how that goes. And one of the disciples, Peter, when he was arguing against this idea that you need to believe in Jesus plus do works, one of the things that he said was none of us were able to bear the yoke of circumcision and keeping the law. Why would we ask the Gentiles to do that? We couldn't even do it. And we've been brought up in it. In that particular context, the yoke pictures serving the law. It was a master. And it was a hard master. Because nobody could keep it. Paul picks up on that same idea in Galatians chapter 5. In the book of Galatians, Paul is talking to people who believed in Jesus. They understood that salvation was by grace through faith. But then some teachers came in who were saying the same stuff that happened back in the book of Acts. They were saying, if you really believe in Jesus and you really want to grow as a Christian and you really want to be a good Christian, then you need to be circumcised. You need to keep the law of Moses. And Paul said to them, no, you were saved by grace, you grow by grace. And he puts it this way in chapter five, he says, stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. So that's how the word yoke is used in the Bible, sometimes to refer to a physical piece of wood that's used for work. But it's also used to refer to not a physical slavery, but a spiritual slavery. The reality is that a yoke is a symbol of serving and you can serve a number of different things. We saw some particular examples there of people who were serving religious observances, but can mean many, many different things. And a yoke is not necessarily bad. If it was always bad, then it wouldn't be right for Jesus to say, take my yoke upon you, right? Jesus didn't ever ask us to do something wrong or harmful or sinful. So how are we going to understand what Jesus is talking about here in Matthew chapter 11? You have to remember first that a yoke is a symbol of service. We have to remember, too, But that service can be different for all of us. You see, the Pharisees in Jesus day and in the early church, they they thought that the way to find God's approval was by keeping the law. And even those who believed in Jesus sometimes struggled with that very thing. But that's not an uncommon struggle, is it? Sometimes we struggle with that, too, don't we? How many times have you had a bad day? And the thought that pops into your mind is, well, if I had just read my Bible more, maybe I wouldn't be having such a bad day. You ever thought that? Or maybe if I prayed more, I wouldn't have such a bad day, or or maybe if I put more money in the offering plate, then my day would be better. You know, there are a lot of preachers who preach that kind of message. If you really want to be blessed, then give God more money. If you really want to have a good life, then you just have to work harder at being a Christian. And there's something in our heart that at times agrees with that. We think if I was just a better person, then God would love me more and my life would be better. That belief is a yoke. And it will pull you down. It doesn't ever satisfy, does it? Because when have you ever done enough? You never do. You're never good enough. You're never faithful enough. For other people, it's not that they are trying harder to please God with their work. It's that they think that something else besides God will give them satisfaction. Sometimes for some of us, it can be the size of our bank account, right? If I just have enough money, then I know I'll be OK. I know I can face whatever may come. Or for some of us, it can be if I just have good health. How many times have you heard people say, if you have your health, you have everything? Maybe we've even said that sometimes, right? Is that true? Does good health really give you deep satisfaction and joy and rest in your soul? It doesn't, does it? Because it can be taken away like that. Sometimes we think, well, the thing that will really give my life joy and satisfaction and purpose is is if all the relationships around me are good. That's one that I struggle with myself. A lot of times it's like it's automatically in my heart. If I can make sure that everybody likes me and thinks well of me, then I'm successful. Then I'll have peace and joy in my heart. And guess what? I'm more than 50 years old and I'm still learning you can't make everybody happy. And you know that, don't you? We can't please everybody, but sometimes in my mind, I think, well, if I could just do that, that's the thing that will give me peace. There's all kinds of things that can become a yoke to us because we think by serving those things, by taking on that yoke, we'll have joy and satisfaction. We'll have a good life. All those things are really just competition with the one yoke that will bring joy, that will bring satisfaction, that will bring a good life. You see, the people that Jesus was talking to that day, some of those people were very religious people. And let's be honest, if we were living in the days of the Pharisees, We would look at those people as being very godly, very good people. That's part of what Paul says when people were arguing against his credentials as an apostle. He says, listen, if you want to look at somebody who lived like a Pharisee, look at my life. He said, I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I kept all the rules. I did all the ceremonies. I was at the top of my class. But all of those things, Paul said, meant nothing before God. All of my righteousness was worthless. It was like a pile of manure before God. It didn't justify me at all. But there were a lot of people who thought that was the way to have a good life. That was the way to be rightly related to God. And those people were listening to Jesus that day. There were some people like that. There were other people listening to Jesus who had believed in Jesus, but then their circumstances got hard and they were beginning to wonder. And one example that we have right here in the context is earlier in Matthew chapter 11, we read about John the Baptist. Now, remember who John the Baptist was a very special, very important person. He was the one who was given the responsibility to make a way for Jesus. He preached a baptism of repentance. He preached the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world. He was somebody who was on fire for God. He served God well. Many sacrifices that he made. And when Jesus came on the scene, he wasn't a bit jealous or anything. He said, He's the one you should worship, not me. I'm not even worthy to tie his sandals. A man with a humble heart who longed to see Jesus, and when he saw Jesus, had no problem in pointing him out. But John, we read in Matthew chapter 11, got put in prison. Because as he preached about the coming of the Lord Jesus, he got in trouble with the king. And so he was in prison, and while he was in prison, He sent a few of his disciples to Jesus to say, Are you really the Messiah? Or should we be looking for somebody else? Why would John say that? Because if Jesus really was the Messiah, and if now here was the one he had been announcing for all this time, the one who would take away the sins of the world, the one who would restore the broken, heal the blind and the lame, and set the captive free, then why am I in jail? That's what John was thinking. If you really are the Lord, and if I really have served you well, then why am I in jail? John was a strong Christian, but he began to have questions. Some of the people who listened to Jesus that day were like that. You see, the people who were listening to Jesus that day were just like us. Sometimes we can think that if we just live better, God will love us more. Sometimes our circumstances can cause us to wonder, is Jesus really all that he claimed to be? If he is, why is my life so hard? Now, there may be some of you here, maybe you've never experienced enough hardship in your life that you've been driven to ask that question or or maybe you're too afraid to ask that question, but it's kind of been rattling around in the back of your mind. If you haven't ever experienced enough hard things to make you question, then the day still may come when you will. If you have experienced some of those questions and you've been hesitant to even face them, I would encourage you, bring them out in the open and pray to God about it. Do what John did, ask Jesus. Are you really the one? Jesus' response, of course, will always be yes. I am. But don't look to your circumstances. Look to me. I believe that's what Jesus is saying to all of us this morning. You see, Jesus doesn't talk to people who are neutral. They're just out there and they can choose one side or the other. All of us from birth, the Bible says, are dead in our sin. We are God's enemies by birth. Even that sweet little baby that is so cute, even that baby has a sinful heart and a sinful nature. But following Jesus. It it's not just a one time decision, it it is, but it's more than that. Because Satan has many ways of disguising his yoke. You can think back through the scripture and see some examples of that. What about Adam and Eve? You know, Satan didn't come to them in the garden and say, listen, don't serve God, serve me. I'm I'm God's enemy and I want you to serve me. He didn't say that, did he? He said, did God really tell you you can't eat from all the trees in the garden? No, he told us there's one tree that we can't eat from. Well, that's because he knew that if you ate the fruit from that tree, you'd become like him. The Bible says that Satan comes disguised as an angel of light. He doesn't come right out and say how he is God's enemy. He wants to present it in different ways. And I believe that even as Christians, if we're not careful, we can sometimes be fooled, can't we? We can sometimes look to the wrong things for our hope. Adam and Eve said, hey, we can be free and we can have all the knowledge we want. That can sound like a good thing, right? But it wasn't. Their decision put enmity between God and not only them, but all of their descendants, us too. But it wasn't just Adam and Eve that struggled with that. You can think, you know, move the time clock forward. Even the Apostle Paul could struggle. The very one who said, don't be entangled with a yoke of bondage. Paul struggled. In Second Corinthians, Paul talks about a time where he and the men who were working with him, the other missionaries, they they had such a difficult time. They experienced so many hardships, he says, we despaired even of life. Now, that must have been pretty bad for Paul. This was a man who had been shipwrecked a number of times. He had been beaten a number of times. He had been stoned many times. In fact, one time after he was stoned, he was left for dead. You read about that in the Book of Acts, that they dragged his body out of the city because they thought he was dead. He experienced a lot of hardship, but whatever it was that he experienced there this time, he said, we despaired even of life. And then he says, we experienced that so that we would learn not to trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. Apparently, Paul went through a time where he was beginning to trust in himself. Trust in His own gifts. Trust in His own wisdom. And that became a yoke to Him. There are a lot of different yokes. And Jesus' challenge to all of us is, don't wear those yokes. Just wear My yoke. Look to Me. for purpose and fulfillment and joy and comfort. Don't measure it by your circumstances. Don't measure it by your goodness. Don't measure it by your bank account. Don't measure it by your health. Look to me. That's what Jesus is telling us this morning. It's a message that we need to hear. Because again, all of us can struggle with this from time to time. I struggle with this. Please don't think that pastors just have it all together all the time. We don't. There are times that we struggle, we are broken, sinful men. We have hearts that belong to Jesus, and yet there's still warfare that goes on. And it will go on until the day we die. That's the normal Christian experience. That's why the Bible tells us to find our strength in God and not in ourselves. And that's basically what Jesus is saying here. Again, he is saying, look to me, come to me, take my yoke upon you. Jesus is saying, don't serve anyone or anything else. I'm the one who can provide the yoke that you need, because my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And I will give rest to your soul. How do you do that? You know, there's the invitation. Come to me if you're weary and heavy laden. There's the promise. I will give you rest. How do we do that? That's really the question, isn't it? Because again, I believe that probably this morning as I read that passage, I doubt that anybody here was hearing that for the first time. In fact, a lot of you could probably quote it. But what does it mean? Listen again to what Jesus says. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and what? 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. What does it mean to come to Jesus? It means to learn from Jesus. What that means is the only way for us to fight against all those different yolks that want to be piling on our backs is to spend time with Jesus. We have to spend time with Jesus every day. We need to expose everything that's in our heart to Jesus every day. Jesus is talking here about a very intimate relationship, isn't he? He's talking about us confiding in him. He's talking about us wanting to know him. And that's something that requires effort on our part. At various times in my life, I've wanted to get in better shape. I've never had any success as long as all that I've done is read about it or think about it. I don't do anything about it. Nothing changes. All of you have heard Jesus say before, come to me. All of you have heard those things, but but my question for my own heart and for your heart is what about today? Because I believe that what Jesus is saying here is something for every day. It's not just a one-time thing in your life. Well, you know, I lived kind of a wild life, but one day I was at a church service and I heard a sermon and I walked down the aisle and I trusted in Jesus. I mean, that's great, but that's not all there is. Jesus is calling for us every day to come to Him. Every day to take His yoke. Every day to learn from Him. Jesus wants us to come all the time. Sometimes in my life, as I've looked at this verse, what I've tried to do is just believe more strongly that Jesus gives rest. You know, because the promise is here. And so a lot of times I can focus in on the promise, and sometimes I forget that Jesus doesn't say, focus on the promise. Jesus says, come to me. You don't find rest by seeking rest. You find rest by seeking Jesus. You don't find peace by seeking peace. You don't find an easy yoke or a light burden by seeking those things. You find those things by seeking Jesus. It's a difference, isn't it? And so that's what I want to encourage you to do today. I want to encourage you to look to Jesus every day. To every day say, Lord Jesus, I belong to you. Lord Jesus, in my own strength, I can't do anything. Lord Jesus, if you leave me alone today, I'll try to find other things that will give me peace and satisfaction and joy and purpose. So, Lord Jesus, please help me today. To wear your yoke. Some things that will help that are our prayer and Bible reading and having Christian friends and worship. And by the way, let me encourage you to to have Christian friends who will help you know Jesus better. Sometimes we think fellowship is just being with other Christians, and that's part of it. But real fellowship keeps Jesus at the center. So I would encourage you to have good, close, dear friends who will talk to you about Jesus and help you to know Jesus. And don't just seek those kind of friends. Be that kind of a friend. Be that kind of a sister or brother or wife or husband or parent or grandparent or aunt or uncle or son or daughter. Whatever your roles are in life, I want to plead with you that you look to Jesus all the time. And then you encourage others to do that, too. When they're struggling, when they're wrestling, when they're trying to find satisfaction and joy and peace and other things, don't be surprised that they're not satisfied. Don't be surprised that they're weak and heavy laden. Because every other yoke does that. Only the yoke of Jesus gives rest and joy and peace. That's what I long for for me. And that's what I long for for you too. Let's pray. Father, I ask that You would help us We don't just want to read about the promise. We don't just want to think about it. We don't even just want to speak it. We want to experience it. And so, Father, I pray that because of your mercy and compassion, because of your great power and because of your desire to bring glory to your son, help us to know the reality of the easy yoke of Jesus. Help us to be people who really have rest in our souls. Not because we're looking to anything or anyone other than Jesus. Father, if we start depending on other things, please open up our eyes so we can see the truth. Help us. We want to learn more about Jesus. So please, Father, make us hungry and thirsty to know him. And please don't let us be satisfied with anything else. Father, you know our hearts. Help us to bring those hearts to Jesus. And I pray too, Father, that as we know and love Jesus better and better, that the people around us would see Him and that they too would know and love Him. We pray this in His precious name. God's people said, Amen.