Come to Me
Matthew 11:25-30
· READ Matthew
· This may seem like an odd passage to
preach on, maybe it’s kind of where I am, so I thought you’d get a dose of my
longing.
· Here Jesus calls His followers to
come
· But it’s not just Jesus calling us,
it’s also a reminder that in order to come to Jesus, we come to this Jesus, on
His terms
· Kevin DeYoung says, “Just about everybody in America likes Jesus,
but few like Him for who He truly is.”
· As we head into 2014, the Elders hope
is a renewed passion in all God’s people to pursue Him
· PRAY
Jesus’ prayer (vv:25-26)
· Matthew opens this passage by
recording Jesus’ prayer
· Do you hear what Jesus said?
o He thanks the Father
o Lord of heaven and earth
§ The Sovereign King of all creation
§ For hiding (these things) the kingdom
of God and His gospel plan
§ From people who think they are wise
and learned
§ and instead revealed them to spiritual
infants
§ (1 Corinthians 1:18-19) ‘For the word of the cross is folly to those
who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I
will thwart.” ’
§ We respond to the gospel not because
we are wise, it is when we become weak
o Revealed them to “little children”
§ Does this mean less wise?
§ Because the gospel is not meant to be
a complicated message
§ Wm. Hendriksen - “It is clear, therefore, that ‘babes’ are
those who are conscious of their utter dependence on others. Spiritually,
therefore, babes are those who humbly confess their own nothingness, their
emptiness and helplessness, and who, being thoroughly aware of their absolute
dependence upon the might and mercy of the heavenly Father, betake themselves
to Him, trusting that from Him they will receive whatever is necessary so that,
enjoying salvation full and free, they may live lives of gratitude to His glory.”
[1]
§ Isn’t that what Jesus just said a few
chapters earlier?
¨ (Matthew 5)
¨ Blessed are the poor in spirit, meek,
etc.
¨ Hunger and thirst
¨ That’s exactly what He means
o This section of Scripture comes on
the heels of the “woes” to Chorazin and Bethsaida
§ He had shown them the kingdom in a
way that Sodom would have repented to
§ (I don’t have time for alternate
realities…)
§ But had not revealed it to them
o God did this to demonstrate “His gracious
will”
§ not chance
§ Jesus is saying that the Father
planned things this way.
o Do you see what Jesus is saying?
§ God, you are good and right to have
set this up that only those who come to you humbly acknowledging their great
need – can come to you
§ And for those who do, I will set an
everlasting, unfailing, powerful love on them so none can be lost
§ God’s not looking for really good
people to love, God’s love is really good to people
o If you want hope, here’s some more:
§ (John 6:37-39) ‘ “All that the Father gives Me will
come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My
own will but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 And
this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He
has given Me, but raise it up on the last day.” ’
§ Boy, it just seems too good to be
true
§ It seems too good to be true because
of the vast unfairness of the cross
o Really, God would love and accept
people who hate Him?
o And
because they have nothing to pay Him with He’ll pay the penalty Himself.
Really?
o Who would do that? Our God…why?
o because He’s gracious and merciful
Instruction to His disciples (v:27)
· All things given by the Father to the
Son
o Jesus is sovereign too
o Jesus is powerful
o And He’s the only way to the Father
o He (Jesus) wants exclusivity
o He’s worthy of worship
§ He not only desires it
§ He deserves it
· Chooses to reveal Him
o To know the Son is to know the Father
o The Son makes the Father known
o And yet, not fully, only the Son fully
knows the Father
· Meant for our security
o If you know Christ, you know the
Father
o This was because the Spirit of God
revealed it to you
o (Matthew 16:17) ‘And
Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has
not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” ’
o It’s not because you’re really smart,
it is grace
o Evangelism
o Discipleship
o You can’t MAKE anyone believe
anything, this is why we are called to pray
· Jesus sets up His followers with:
o You’re unable
o Helpless
o Needy
Result (vv:28-30)
· Then He moves into (vv:28-30)…come to
Me
· Who? You really smart people that I
desperately need to build my team?
· Come to me is not a NT concept
o (Jeremiah 9:23-24) 23 ‘Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man
boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the
rich man boast in his riches, 24 but
let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that
I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the
earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.” ’
o Come!
§ imperative
§ aorist – come and never leave, you
who
o Toil, struggle and are burdened
o Rest AND refreshment
· Yoke
o In the New Testament yoke is always used metaphorically and
signifies bondage or submission to authority of some kind. [2]
o Jesus is holding out to his followers
the thought of a yoke that was easy, not bondage.[3]
· Learn from Me – because I’m gentle
and lowly (humble)
· Little children
o we confuse growing in maturity with
positional reality
o I want to be off milk, so I pursue
knowledge
o and obedience becomes my
righteousness
o I confuse child-likeness with
childishness
· Let the word dwell richly
o When I read Scripture, I say “Hear
now, the very words of God”
o But I believe, all too often we
actually hear words about God
· If life right now seems hard,
frustrating, overwhelming, Jesus is saying the problem is not Him, it’s me
o Truth and a promise: come to Me and
you might find rest?
o come to Me and you will find rest
o Give up being who you need to be,
come as a child
o Give up the things that control you,
that you need to make you happy, because obviously they’re not
§ If only my job was what I wanted
§ If only my family was what I wanted
§ My fear for many Christians is that
their greatest concern is whether or not people are paying too little or too
much in taxes
· Why come to Jesus?
o He is all
there is
§ (Colossians
3:4) “When Christ who is your life appears,
then you also will appear with him in glory.”
§ (John
15:5) ‘ “I am the vine; you are the
branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit,
for apart from Me you can do nothing.” ’
§ The
greatest treasure in all the universe
§ So, why do
I want Jesus?
§ Am I trying to use Jesus to get what
I want, or is He
what I want?
§ Are we willing to let the Spirit show
us what our weakness are?
· Again, so why come to Jesus?
o Jesus is
strong, you can be weak
§ Have you
ever thought the difficulties coming your way is perhaps Jesus wooing you back
to Him?
§ Instead, I’ll
press through this myself, when I have an entire church to walk with me as an
extension of Jesus
o Jesus has
succeeded, then you can free to fail
§ do we
realize, that if in fact if we do succeed, it will be in spite of us not
because of us?
§ God
doesn’t need Tim Tebow
o Jesus performance is enough to
forever satisfy the Father
§ No need to earn God’s love
§ I don’t have to worry about God being
happy with me
§ Parents, the worst thing you can do
to your kids is to tell them to behave or God will be unhappy with them
§ Do you know how conditional that
makes His love sound?
o Jesus has won you can loose
§ My son is wrestling and I can’t live
through him
§ I can be O when ALL the Elders
disagree with me – I don’t have to win
o Because Jesus
is extraordinary, you and I can be ordinary
§ It’s OK if
you never preach
§ It honors
God tremendously if you serve in nursery and no one notices
§ You don’t
have to publish a best seller
o But best of all – in Jesus, you have
the Father’s full approval, you need no one else’s
§ I’m
desperately holding on to my image
§ What’s cool, trendy
§ There’s a difference between being
culturally relevant and trendy cool
§ What others think only matters if
that is the highest approval I seek
· My prayer for us, is we spend time in
the Word as a means to hear from Jesus, and rejoice in Jesus, and run to Jesus
· And maybe, this is the week that
you’ll let some brother or sister help you come a little closer to Jesus
· Jesus’ uses His church to minister
through
· Let’s pray
· Would you stand and please join me as
we continue to worship Jesus?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.