Matthew 11:28-29 ” Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.“
THE BEGINNING AND THE END OF ALL BIBLE STUDY
Lesson One
INTRODUCTION
These verses speak to those who labor and are heavy laden. Somehow, I can’t help but feel that any one of us fits that category at various times in our lives. We certainly fit that group if we are lost and without Christ because there is no greater case of souls that are burdened down and labor under the most grievous weight than the case of those who carry their own load of sin, trying to shoulder some of it and finding it necessary to drag the rest forward like a ball and chain toward eternal doom, day after day. For those who might be in that condition, it is a labor of woe and promises the worst of paychecks. Ultimately, if they labor under the load of their own sins from the cradle to the grave, the paycheck they will earn is eternal damnation. What a horrific thing to receive as wages for spending a lifetime carrying a Mac truck on their backs and dragging a freight train behind at the same time.
Then, saints of God become overburdened from time to time in their lives and the weight of such things as beset them is more than they can easily bear. The toil of it is just too much. The effect of it on their spiritual lives is drastic. The weight of it bends their back to the ground and they cannot help but feel the greatest drain on all their vigor and strength, both physical, emotional and spiritual. Things come upon God’s people from all directions. There is sickness, making a living, dealing with loss, dealing with gain, family woes, woes from friends, woes from dealing with our possessions or dealing with the lack of possessions. Like Jonah, sometimes the worm eats and kills our gourd vine and a blasting east wind of trial and blazing hot sun of trouble causes us to faint. Sometimes, like the disciples on the sea of Tiberias, we are caught in a windy sea of trying experiences and though we row hard to reach the safety and rest of land we have little success. And like those disciples, we need the relief that Jesus gave as He came walking to them on the water, giving encouragement and calming the contrary wind (Matthew 14:23-34).
Jesus Christ speaks to all who labor and are heavy laden, because He would have them know that they can step out of that condition and be at rest. The lost sinner can rest from his own works and rest IN Jesus Christ’s finished work and lay down his heavy load of sin at the cross and rise up a new person created in Christ Jesus unto good works, having the righteousness of Christ, having his sins washed away, having a new life and a new start as an heir of God and joint heir with Christ (Romans 8:17). Then, the saved person can take his burdens to the Lord and just let the Lord take care of them. He can swap the yoke of worldly care, concern, and overburdening conflict for the yoke of Jesus and find that yoke easy and the burden of it light (Matthew 11:30). In doing this, he will enter into a process that leads to rest for the soul. And this is where we get to the portion of the Lord’s statement from which we draw our bible lesson today. “Take my yoke upon you and LEARN OF ME, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
The verse tells us plainly that if we will simply learn of Christ we shall find rest unto our souls. And that is the grand hope of all the Lord’s people! To find rest from all the things that assail the children of Adam! We know that this does not mean retiring from the labors which accompany our faith. We are reminded that we are created in Christ Jesus “unto good works, that God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). We know also that the full discovery of that rest will be when we are gathered with Christ in heaven and then share with Him in the eternal blessings of enjoying the new heaven and the new earth. But, Jesus is talking in our text about discovering rest for our souls WHEN we take His yoke upon us and learn of Him. We have entered into a rest when we are saved and that rest has the potential to grow and grow, beginning NOW. We are not instructed to come unto Him and then sit down and wait for the final discovery of that rest when we get to heaven. We are rather, given instructions about how to begin to discover rest unto our souls while we live on this earth. And the centerpiece of that process is, as He says, “Learn of me…”. So let’s begin today to look at what our Lord means when He says “Learn of me.” We will try to showcase what the bible reveals to us about the Lord; who He was as exemplar on earth and is just now in heaven, what He considers important, how He went about His earthly life. By learning these things we will have learned of Him. But we have a first step of two parts that we need to attend to and we will look at that as a starter.
There are two conditions we must meet in order to take advantage of this great blessing Christ has promised. As we think further about our Savior’s words we should recall that He said “Come unto me…” This is the first thing that must be done. Now, you might think that this is such a simple thing that anyone would be willing to do it if there was a fair likelihood that in doing so, they would find a rest for themselves never before discovered. In fact, common sense tells us that a person would be looking for rest if he were wandering in a treacherous landscape in a hot and merciless desert where every step is fraught with something to cause pain, discomfort, or danger; where prickly pears stick in the feet, sand gets in the shoes, certain crawling things wait under rocks to sting or bite, thirst haunts the body, and the sun becomes the enemy. Yet, humans distancing themselves from Christ, the very source of living water are plodding along in a barren land without any hope of resting or quenching the thirst of their souls! Seemingly one step away from certain and eternal rest they wander in the land of desolation even with the invitation of Jesus the Merciful ringing in their ears! How can this be?
Such an anomaly can happen because humans are self-contradictory in many things. Getting to a place of rest is no exception. Jesus noted in John 5:40 when speaking to some Jews: “And ye will not come to me that ye might have life.” This is a good summary statement about the attitude of all men who reject the Lord Jesus Christ. Imagine such a contradiction! Here is a man dying of a cancer. The Doctor who holds the cure for all forms of cancer walks up to him and says “Come over here and I will heal you.” The man stares at the Doctor, turns away and wanders off in another direction. He thinks about what the Doctor said, remembers what the scene looked like, has a mental image of the Doctor, knows where he is, but wanders around out there somewhere until he falls over dead from his disease. This is the very thing Jesus was talking about when he addressed those thick-headed Jews and said, “…ye will not come to me that ye might have life.” Notice that the Lord points squarely at the cause of their refusal to come to Him. “…ye will not….” This is the case of unbelieving men. They “will not” to come to Christ. Said another way, it is their WILL not to come to Him. And that is the crux of the obstinacy which besets the carnal spirit of the children of Adam. Away with the idea that sensible men will reason with themselves and “decide” to follow Jesus when presented the plain truth about the benefits to be had by repenting before God and faith in Christ! They WILL NOT come to Him that they might have life! “…there is none that seeketh after God” (Romans 3:11). This statement accurately describes all unregenerate people!
So, some may ask, “If no human will come to Christ, why does He bother to invite them? And, why are there people who have confessed belief in Christ and admitted that they have gone to Him and are following Him if, as you say, none will come to Him when invited?” Ah! Here is a good question. It begs a thorough answer.
Why Humans Cannot and Will Not Come to Christ
Humans in their natural state have the mind and will that they received from their parents. This is that which came from Adam, the parent of all humans. Adam died spiritually and began dying physically when he disobeyed God (Genesis 3:3-6), just as God had warned him that he would (Genesis 2:16-17). He still had the human nature, but he lost touch with the nature of God. In a state of spiritual death, and with only the natural state to guide them, humans cannot receive or know the spiritual things of God. (1 Corinthians 3:14). In addition, the bible describes people in their natural state as having a “carnal (fleshly) mind.” That carnal (fleshly) mind is at enmity with God (Romans 8:7). In this state no human will seek after God. All humans are found in this state naturally, and in this state all have sinned. They are dead in trespasses and sins. Dead people are incapable of doing anything. Humans cannot approach God because of their sin. Moreover, that incapacity is the result of a will not to approach God. Which means, that if they had the means to approach God and make peace, they would not do so, at any rate (John 5:40). There is an impasse which humans will not try to mend by using means prescribed by God. This impasse must be broken by God, because humans are too proud to admit wrong; and incapable of making amends to God because their dead state makes them insensible to the need to be reconciled to their Maker. God steps in and establishes the way for them to be reunited with Him; a way for settling the difference between Himself and humans. That way is found in the complete and finished work of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:13-15). We will consider aspects of this in Lesson Two.