Promises of Jesus: Carry Our Burdens
Introduction:
I want to read you a page from the U.S. Government Peace Corps Manual for its volunteers who work in the Amazon Jungle. The page I’m going to read concerns what to do in case you’re attacked by an Anaconda. The Anaconda is the largest snake in the world. It grows to 35 feet in length and weighs between 300 and 400 pounds. It squeezes it’s victims to death. So this page is the strategy, the steps to take, if attacked by an Anaconda:
1. If you are attacked by an Anaconda, do not run. The snake is faster than you are.
2. Lie flat on the ground. Put your arms tight against your sides, your legs tight against one another.
3. Tuck your chin in.
4. The snake will come and begin to nudge and climb over your body.
5. Do not panic.
6. After the snake has examined you, it will begin to swallow you from the feet end - always at the feet end. Permit the snake to swallow your feet and ankles. Do not panic.
7. The snake will now begin to suck your legs into its body. You must lie perfectly still. This will take a long time.
8. When the snake has reached your knees, slowly, and with as little movement as possible, reach down, take your knife and very gently slide it into the side of the snake’s mouth between the edge of its mouth and your leg. Then suddenly rip upwards, freeing yourself and rendering the snake helpless.
9. Be sure you have a knife.
10. Be sure your knife is sharp.
That is what I would call a situation that I would like to get out of. I do not know if I could handle just sitting there allowing a huge 30 foot snake swallow me whole, I would want out of that situation. Well…we may not face the fear of being swallowed by a giant Anaconda on a daily basis, but we do face big problems, stresses and burdens in life that attempt to swallow us and overtake us and many of us want a way out from those burdens. Things like…”How are we going to make ends meet financially?” “How are we going to resolve the problems in our marriage or overcome the grief of divorce?” “How are we going to stand strong against a sin we are wrestling with?” “How do we let go of the guilt we have from something we have done in the past?” “How do we forgive someone that has wronged us?” “How do we better handle and manage our time?” What do we do when we are tired, stressed and worn out?” “What do we do when a child or loved one has gone astray spiritually?” We could have lists a mile long of stressors in our lives and things we are dealing with that drag us down. These worries and questions occupy our time and energy; they bring unneeded stress to our lives. We try to figure out every possible way to work these problems out. Wouldn’t it be nice if for every big issue in our lives we had a ten-step guide to help us through it. I am sorry to say sadly, it is not that cut and dry. Burdens and hard times in life are a reality that we may never be able to fully escape, but we do have an offer for some help.
Throughout Jesus’ life and ministry he offered many different promises to his disciples. So often we as Christians fail to claim those promises. I do not know if it is because a lack of awareness or a feeling of unworthiness that hinders us from claiming those promises, but I want you to know today that the Bible is full of promises that not only are we able to claim, but God wants us to claim those promises, which can make our lives better.
Text: Matthew 11:25-30
I. Come To Me
I believe that the greatest invitation that Jesus offers is for us to come to him. This call in Matthew 11 still stands, come to me. I have heard it said that the command that Jesus spoke most often was to come and follow after him.
A. Come On His Terms
First we need to realize that we need to come to Jesus on his terms and not ours. On several occasions people wanted to come and follow Jesus and they wanted to do it on their terms. One guys first wanted to take care of some other busisness, but Jesus asked him to come now. The man wantedx to follow Jesus, but wanted to come on his terms. A lot of times people think they can set the methods wheby we come to him or how things are to be done when God has already spoken on certain issues. A lot of people think that the church is to be a democracy and that everyone should have a vote for how things are done, but we forget that we operate on his terms and not by our preferences.
B. Come As You Are
Jesus doesn’t expects people to come to them when they have it all figured out, when their lives are going good, when they are’nt struggling with sin, or when they becaome good people. Rather, he calls us to come as we are. That does not mean that our sins and our struggles are acceptable, but it means that God does understand that before we can get life worked out we need to come to him. Many have that backwards. Jesus calls us to come to him and to come as we are. What a joy it is to know that Jesus invites us to follow him and learn from him and to serve him.
C. Come Immediatley
II. All Who Are Weary and Burdened
One of the amazing things that we see as we read through the gospels about Jesus is that he addresses each real need and problem that we have and offers us a solution. That fact sets Jesus in a league of his own. We need food and water to live and Jesus offers us so much more in the Living water and the Bread of life. We fear death and long for life and Jesus offers us springs of living water that well up to eternal life and an opportunity to be born again.
a. Burdened By Worry (Kopiao ~ feel fatigued, exhausted, weary)
The word that Jesus used for burdened is a word that means feeling fatigued or exhausted. Maybe faitgued or exhausted religiosuly because of the burden the Pharisees put on them. Maybe faitguued physically because of stress and worry in their lives, but whatever the case may be Jesus invites us to come and to be relieved of our burdens, stresses and worries.
What a great promise that we can claim! What a great promise that our culture of stress and worry needs to hear! We have so mnay stressors in life, we have the financial stress of trying to make ends meet, we have the emotional stress of family, we have the physical stress of word and we have the spiritual stress that is assosicated with our faith, but Jesus wants to releive that for us. I believe there is a reason why so many people have heart problems, heart attacks and high blood pressure, and it is because people often fail to give things over to God and instead they worry about how they can fix their problems. The reality is we cannot make it on our own, but we need God’s help. Today you do not have to worry.
Matthew 6:25-32
Worry is wrong because it a failure to trust that God is capable.
b. Burdened By Sin (Not Being Able to Keep the Law)
When Jesus spoke of the rest for the burdened that word burdened in the Greek means to load up the way an animal was loaded up and prepared to plow or to overload with spiritual ceremony.
In the culture in which Jesus lived different rabbis would have different rules and regulations of what the permitted and what was forbidden. That set of rules was called his “yoke”. When a disciple decided to follow a certain rabbi, he chose to do so because he believed that rabbi’s interpretations of the Scripture to be most accurate, they were taking up that rabbi’s yoke. Jesus jumped all over the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law because of the yoke that they placed on people.
Luke 11:46
The point Jesus was getting at is that the Law and commandments are no good if the teacher’s do not try to help people do what is right. The Pharisees interpretations of the Law was so extreme that no one could possibly do what was expected of them. The problem was that the teachings of the Pharisees were not always synonymous with God’s teachings. On several occasions the Pharisees got made because Jesus would not live under the burden that they were placing on people. For example, they got mad because Jesus was healing on the Sabbath, but they missed the point and valued the Law above life. One of the reasons I believe the Hebrew writer speaks of a need to a “New Covenant” is because no human being could get it right with a set of strict laws and commandments to obey, and even if they did it did not mean that their heart was in it. A religion or faith is pointless if it is impossible for the people to live it out. Jesus here is offering a promise of a faith that we can live out. He is saying we are not subject to rules and regulations that no person can obey. Does that mean that we have no rules or commandments? Of course not! Jesus is not offering us more freedom to do what God forbids, but rather is offering to help us to do what is right and give us grace when we mess up.
God does not give us a set of commands, rules and regulations that is a greater burden on us than we can bear. He doesn’t place rules on us just for fun, but he does it for our own good, he does it to protect us and to protect others. Obeying His commands aren’t a burden though like the Pharisees made them because we love God and obey him out of love not just a sense of duty. Just going through the motions puts us under a heavy burden, but obeying God’s commands because we delight in pleasing God makes our burden light because our desire is to obey Him.
I John 5:3
The problem keeps coming up though and has for a long time, of God’s people putting a yoke on people that no one can bear, and they forget Jesus offers us to carry his easy yoke. An issue came up in Acts 15 where some people were teaching that unless you are circumcised you cannot be saved. So Paul and Barnabas went down to Jerusalem to see the Apostles there and address this question. Here is what the Apostle Peter said to that issue…
Acts 15:10
The reason for the problem was that people were interpreting God’s Word and requiring more than God did, and all the while Jesus offers us an easier and better way. Not a way exempt from striving for holiness, but help in doing what we should.
Galatians 5:1
III. I Will Give You Rest
Several years ago, the Wall Street Journal carried a story about Sally, an overly conscientious youngster who made herself miserable over the smallest failures and setbacks.
Early one fall, while the leaves were still on the trees, there was an exceptionally heavy snowstorm. Sally’s grandfather took her for a drive and said, "Notice those elms, the branches are so badly broken that the trees may die. But just look at those pines and evergreens. They are completely undamaged by the storm. My child, there are two kinds of trees in the world, the foolish and the wise. An elm holds its branches rigid. As it becomes weighted down, eventually its limbs break. But when an evergreen is loaded, it simply relaxes, lowers its branches, and lets the burden slip away
a. Taking His Yoke Involves Submission
Over and over again in Scripture do we learn about the idea of submission. Submission is giving up your own desires and preferences for another. We are called to submit to Christ even though our flesh and our minds want to do things, we are called to submit what we want to Him. On the other side we are told over and over again in the Scriptures about having freedom because of Christ and how we are no longer slaves to the Law. What is the balance between the two?
There’s a story that Abraham Lincoln went to a slave market one time, and was moved with compassion to place a bid on a young black girl. He won the bid and walked away with his “property.” There was a sullen, angry expression on the girl’s face, because she knew that here was another white man who had bought her and would abuse her. As they walked away from the slave block, however, Lincoln told the girl, “You are free.”
“What does that mean?” she demanded.
“It means, you are free.”
“Does that mean that I can be what I want to be?” “Yes--you can be whatever you want to be.”
“Does that mean that I can say what I want to say?” “Yes--you can say whatever you want to say.”
“Does that mean that I can go where I want to go?” “Yes--you can go wherever you want to go.”
“Then ...” said the girl, “... I’ll go with you.”
The Old Testament was very specific in its laws and regulations. God even gave rules for how His people were to handle their slaves. They were instructed that they could have a slave that served them for only six years and then on the seventh year was to be set free without any payment. If during the time of the slavery the Master provided the slave with a wife and they had sons or daughters the wife and children would not go free along with him. But, if the servant decided that he wanted to stay because he loves his wife and chilren and master, they would take im to the doorpost and pierce his ear through with an awl, which was like a small ice pick. After that the servant would be a servant for life, but a servant by choice. That choice to stay with their loved ones came with sacrifice and it came at a cost of some pain.
We too choose to serve God by choice. We choose to give up our freedoms and our own desires to be in submission to God. Becoming a life long servant of Christ may call for some sacrifice on our parts, but in the end it is well worth it. In order for us to take the easy yoke that Christ offers us we must be willing to submit to his authority and be willing to obey him. Many of the promises in Scripture sound absolutely wonderful, but we must remember that many of those promises are indeed conditional on our action and response.
b. Taking His Yoke Means We Pull Our Weight
c. Taking His Yoke Involves Seeking His Will
Matthew 6:33-34
II Corinthians 7:1
