Jesus Is Still Sovereign
Matthew 11:28-30
When I Am Overwhelmed
I am not going to presume that your feelings through this time of COVID-19 are the same as mine. But I think it would be true to say that most of us
… perhaps even all of us.
… have had moments when we have felt overwhelmed.
Where we feel we are emotionally drowning.
Where there is a sense of defeat.
Where we feel … burdened.
Now, maybe, when I said that word … “burdened” … maybe your mind started to recall a verse from Scripture.
Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
You who overwhelmed … Come to Me.
Come to Me and let my power reassure you.
Come to Me an let my peace carry you.
Come to me and let the journey we have had up to now be the journey that gives you stability.
When you are awake at 2:00am … come to me.
When you feel house bound and shut-in … come to me.
When there is tension in your home because we are driving each other crazy … come to me.
Pick-up the weary … pick-up the burden … and come to me.
The weary described here is the weariness related to work and labour. Reaping in the field. Fishing for the market. Walking on a long journey between cities. It is also a weariness which comes from being worn out by the work of life, and the tiredness that comes through physical exertion. There is also a weariness that might come when we are in the Lord spiritually, and it also has the potential to wear us out.
1 Corinthians 15:9-10
For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
If we do the Lord’s work in our own strength … without the grace of God … we will become weary.
The burden spoken of here is that which occurs when we are placed under unrealistic expectations and when we have to carry ongoing pressure.
Like constantly having to hold something above our head.
Slowly, eventually, the pressure of this will get us down and we can’t do it anymore. Such burden can happen in a spiritual sense as well – where religion causes a burden.
Luke 11:46
Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.”
You who are weary … you who are burdened … you who are overwhelmed.
Physically. Emotionally. Spiritually.
You who are weary … burdened … and overwhelmed … are you coming to Jesus? Or are you going somewhere else?
Are you going to a place of distraction?
Are you going to a place of enjoyment?
Are you going to a place of luxury?
Are you going to a place of guilt?
Are you going to a place of avoidance?
Are you going to a place of diversion?
Are you going to a place of hatred?
Are these the places you go when you who are weary … burdened … overwhelmed?
You might go there.
You can go there.
You may have gone there.
But I can guarantee that when you go to these places you don’t find rest.
Ohh … you will find something.
Maybe for a moment you feel good.
Or maybe for a moment you give yourself a break.
Or maybe for a moment you occupy your life.
A momentary distraction. A fleeting sense of satisfaction. A laugh. A memory. An instant where you find yourself.
It is all possible to achieve when you don’t go to Jesus.
But you will never find soul-reviving rest.
Only when the weary and burden go to Jesus do they find rest.
Revelation 2:2-3 (to church in Ephesus)
2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
Did you hear that? In the face of hardship you have not grown weary.
How many of us need that right now.
Rest. Soul-reviving rest which comes from Jesus.
Rest … which is not to be confused with inactivity.
Jesus says “Come to me … find rest … take my yoke,”.
In the days of Jesus a yoke is a wooden beam put on animals to enable them to pull a cart. Also in the days of Jesus the sum total of obligations and teachings which are taught by the Rabbis was called a yoke. And in the days of Jesus the word yoke was also used to describe the relationship of a slave to his master.
To take up the yoke was an action where you were willing to sacrifice yourself and your desires, to follow another, for the purpose of doing works of service. In many ways we could say that the yoke of Jesus is a call to discipleship.
Sacrificing your desires.
Following another.
For works of service.
Jesus says … take this yoke of discipleship.
It is a yoke offered by a master who is gentle and humble.
It is a yoke which is easy and light.
The yoke is not a new law
Galatians 5:18
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The yoke is not a new form of slavery
2 Corinthians 3:17
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
The yoke of discipleship is the yoke of the freedom that comes in living by the Spirit of God in freedom as we joyfully serve the Lord.
It is an aspect of Jesus giving us rest.
It is not inactivity. It is only found in Jesus.
When we put this all together. When we are weary … burdened … and overwhelmed. The way for us to find rest … true soul-reviving rest … is for us to accept, believe, trust, and confess that Jesus is still sovereign … even in the middle of all those things that cause us to be weary … burdened … and overwhelmed.
Jesus is still sovereign
He is King. He is in authority.
Colossians 1:15-18
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
Firstborn from dead … resurrected … so that he might have supremacy.
All those aspects of life that cause us to be weary … burdened … and overwhelmed. In all of that Jesus is still sovereign.
He is the King who rules for you with gentleness and humility.
While that is happen there is another
Satan … the devil … the one served by the beast and the false prophet.
Another who inevitable comes, especially when there is chaos.
Another who seeks to take advantage when the daily effects of the fall into sin take hold:- Death, sickness, pestilence, war, earthquakes, viruses, brokenness, doubt, fear, weariness, burdens.
When these things happen the unholy trinity … Satan, the beast, and the false prophet … they work out their purposes.
Revelation 14:9-11
9 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, 10 they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”
That is their purpose … to use the circumstances of this earth to steal your rest for all eternity.
As they seek to work out that purpose over all of this Jesus is still your King. Jesus who is still sovereign. Jesus also goes about fulfilling his purpose.
Revelation 14:13
Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labour, for their deeds will follow them.”
That gift given to those who die in the Lord … the eternity of rest … that gift is here for you today being offered by Jesus who is still sovereign.
It is a free gift. But you have to hear the call … “Come to me.”
Matthew 4:18-19
18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew … 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said.
You who are weary … but who have the yoke of Jesus.
You who are burdened … but who serve the Lord who is gentle and humble.
You who are overwhelmed … but who need rest.
Hear the call
Hebrews 12:1-3
1 … let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Jesus is Still Sovereign.
So pick-up the weary … pick-up the burden … pick up that which is making you overwhelmed
And come to Him for true soul-reviving rest.
Prayer
