Learn From Me
Matthew 11:26-30
I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Matthew 11. If you are using one of the pew Bibles, this is page 766.
I’m so glad you’re here today as we continue our series, Discipled. If that’s a new word to you, or one you’ve heard tossed around in church it simply means to be a student or a learner. It’s an invitation to a relationship with a master teacher, following them, and adhering to their way of life. ”
And it isn’t an option. Discipleship is vital to the life of a growing Christian. Our discipleship guides every area of life. I’ve heard it explained this way: Every naval fleet is guided by whatever ship the admiral is on. This is the flagship. And whenever the navy goes out in battle formation, they all line up behind the flagship. It is usually the largest, fastest, and most heavily armed of all the ship in the fleet.
So for a Christian, your flagship is your discipleship. Discipleship directs every other ship in your fleet. It directs your friendships, your kinship, your courtships, your leadership, your ownership, your stewardship, your partnerships, your citizenship. You line up all of these other ships behind your discipleship, and you will be ready for battle.
To begin, let’s take a moment to read Matthew 11:25-30 together…
Let’s Pray
Before we get into these verses, let’s put them in context of the rest of the chapter. Chapter 11 starts with some of John the Baptist’s disciples coming to Jesus to ask Him if He was the promised Messiah, or if they should wait for someone else. Jesus doesn’t give a direct answer, but he tells these disciples to go back to John and report to him all the miracles they have seen Jesus do—how he made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see; healed lepers, open the ears of the deaf. Raised the dead, proclaimed good news to the poor.
Basically, Jesus says, “If you want to know if I’m the one, look at what I’m doing. Compare it to what the prophets said the Messiah would do. For example, Isaiah 35:5-6 says that when the Messiah comes,
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
Did you know that there is not a single instance in the Old Testament of anyone being healed of blindness? The only person in the Bible that ever opened the eyes of the blind was Jesus.
Jesus knew John knew the Scriptures. And he knew if John compared the works of Jesus to what the Torah said the Messiah would do, he would have his answer.
How will people know we are Jesus’ disciples today? It is by what we do. We touched on this last week. The evidence of our follow-ship will never be about knowledge. It will only ever be proven by our actions. Jesus says this himself in Matthew 11: wisdom is proven by her actions.
Jesus went on to condemn three cities: Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. You can see them on the map on the screen—all three on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. Today, people call this the “Evangelical Triangle” because about 75% - 80% of Jesus’ teaching and miracles happened within this area. Jesus tells these cities that if the miracles they had seen had been done in the pagan cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom, those people would have repented. But to the people that lived in this triangle, it was just business as usual.
So I have to stop here and ask if we deserve the same condemnation today? They don’t call our region of the country the Evangelical Triangle. They call it the Bible belt. There are churches on every corner. Most of you grew up in church. Sadly, for most of you, that’s all there is to your testimony. “Are you a Christian?” “Yes.” “How do you know?” “Well, I grew up in church.”
I think if Jesus were preaching today, he might say to those of us in the Bible Belt, “Woe to you Little Rock. Woe to you, Dallas. Woe to you Charlotte.
Woe to you, Prattville.
If the miracles that were done in you had been done in Baghdad, or Beijing, or Tehran, or Portland Oregon or Las Vegas or San Francisco, or New York, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes long ago.
These are tough words to hear. But they get to the heart of what following Jesus is really about. It’s about bearing fruit, not just being fed. It’s about repentance, not attendance. We aren’t going to be ushered into heaven with open arms simply because we are in the buckle of the Bible Belt.
So yeah, these are hard words. But then Jesus changes His tone completely. Look at verses 25-26:
25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
Jesus thanks God for making His will known to his children. Jesus says that God has hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to little children instead.
How do little children learn? It isn’t from reading. It isn’t from studying. Children learn by watching and doing. Again, this is discipleship. God’s plan all along was that we would believe that Jesus is the Messiah, repent, follow him, and then learn from His example and DO WHAT THEY SAW HIM DOING!!!
So for the rest of this sermon, I want to point out five things we see in this passage that relate to our following and imitating Jesus.
1. Submit toThe Authority of Jesus (v. 27)
We don’t often read verse 27 along with verse 28, but I think it helps us with a fundamental point: Jesus has the authority to be your teacher. Look at verse 27 again:
27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.by my Father.
Verse 27 says that Jesus’ authority came from God the father. It was established at his baptism, when a voice came from heaven and said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11)
And just as Jesus told John the Baptist’s disciples to look at Jesus’ actions, we see how Jesus demonstrated His authority.
• He has authority over Satan. Satan tried and failed to tempt Jesus, and after the third temptation Jesus looked at Satan and said “Be gone.” (Matthew 4:10)
• He has authority in his teaching. When Jesus taught,people said, “Wow, here is a new teaching, with authority! Not like the scribes and the Pharisees” (Matthew 7:29)
• He has authority over sickness (Mark 1:30-31)
• He has authority over demons: At his command, demons fled
• He has authority over death. He turned funerals into festivals.
• He has authority over nature: he calmed the sea, walked on water, multiplied food, cursed fig trees, and restored sight to the blind, etc.
In every way possible, Jesus has demonstrated His authority to be your king and leader.
How arrogant when we talk about salvation as “accepting Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior.” Salvation isn’t about us accepting Jesus. That’s like saying to a police officer, you know what, I accept you as my personal police officer.
Try that the next time you get a speeding ticket. Let me know how that goes.
You submit to Jesus. You surrender to Jesus. You yield your will to Jesus. You don’t “accept” Jesus, like you are doing him a favor. Salvation isn’t that you have accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. Salvation is that Jesus has accepted you to be his personal student and servant!
2. The Invitation of Jesus (v. 28)
Even though Jesus has absolute authority to run your life, he doesn’t force Himself on anyone. Instead, He invites everyone. Look at the first part of verse 28: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavily laden down.”
Notice it’s a personal invitation to a relationship. Jesus says, "Come to me." He doesn't say, "Come to a set of rules," or "Come to a religious system," or "Come to a church." He says, "Come to me." Discipleship is not about adhering to a set of doctrines or performing a set of rituals. It's about coming to Jesus, knowing Him, loving Him, and following Him. Discipleship is about a relationship in which you’re known, seen, and loved.
It is also an inclusive invitation. He says, “Come to Me, ALL.” Not, “Come to me, some.” We know that not everyone will respond to Jesus’ invitation, and we can leave it to the hyper Calvinists to talk about the theological tension between God’s sovereignty and our free will. But when Peter said “God is not willing that anyone should perish (2 Peter 3), or Paul wrote to Timothy that God wants everyone to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2) or Jesus Himself said “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish” (John 3:16), then whatever your understanding is of limited atonement, it kinda needs to take into account that all means all and everyone means everyone and no one means no one and the world means the world and whosoever means whosoever.
Finally, it’s an attractive invitation. Jesus says, “Come to Me all who are weary and heavily laden.” Jesus doesn’t care what you are weary and burdened with. No matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, no matter how tired or how heavy the burden is, you are invited. You are welcomed. You are wanted. This is the radical inclusivity of Jesus' invitation to discipleship.
I love Eugene Peterson’s translation of this verse. It’s printed at the bottom of your listening guide:
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
Maybe the question isn’t Are you tired, but should be, how tired are you? How beat up and weary are you from all the striving and seeking? Jesus knows,
He sees, and He understands.
3. Claim The Promise of Jesus (v. 28)
Next, think about the promise of Jesus. Come to me, all who labor and are heavily laden down, and I will give you rest. How nice does a little rest sound? And notice that Jesus gives us rest. Jesus doesn’t say, “Come to Me and you can earn your rest.” This is grace; It's unmerited favor. It's a gift. And it's at the heart of Jesus' invitation to discipleship. We don't come to Jesus to earn anything. We come to receive. We come to receive His grace, His love, His mercy, His rest. We come to HIM.
I know this might seem confusing, because a lot of what you’ve heard this morning has been about bearing fruit and doing what we see Jesus doing. And I can tell you from experience that few things wear you out faster than trying to manage all the expectations of a busy church. But if your Christian life is exhausting you, you’re doing it wrong. I’m not saying it isn’t hard work following Jesus. One time someone asked Bono, the lead singer of U2, if he was a follower of Jesus. He said, “I try to follow Jesus, but I feel like I’m always trying to catch up.”
Is that you? Is it religion itself that is wearing you out? Then let’s look at the next phrase:
4. The Yoke of Jesus (v. 29-30)
Jesus invites His disciples to take His yoke on their shoulders. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.” What does that mean? In first-century Judaism, there was a double meaning to the word “yoke.” Literally, a yoke was a wooden beam normally used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs.
Metaphorically, a yoke was a specific rabbi’s interpretation and application of the Torah. Every rabbi had a “yoke” that they expected their students to live by.
As you can imagine, some rabbis’ yokes were stricter than others. There is a story dating back to Jesus’ time about a gentile who approached the two most famous rabbis of the first century. He said to the first one, “I will convert to Judaism if you can teach me the entire Torah while while I am standing on one foot.
The rabbi looked at him and pushed him over. There’s 613 laws in the Torah. And you think you could learn them all while you’re standing on one foot? It takes a lifetime of study and work to learn Torah.
So then the gentile came to the other rabbi. He said, “I will convert to Judaism if you can teach me the entire Torah while I am standing on one foot.
The rabbi looked at him and said, “That which is hateful to you do not do to another.”
Jesus put it this way when He was asked what the greatest commandment was. He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” That’s an easy yoke. That’s a light burden. That doesn’t mean it is easy to do, but it’s easy to understand. In every situation, you ask yourself, “what does my love for God require of me in this situation? What does treating someone else the way I want to be treated require of me in this situation?”
Once again, you find this over and over in Scripture. The apostle Paul told the Galatians that “the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another Gal. 5:14-15). In the next chapter, he said, “carry one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2)
Isn’t it crazy that Jesus brought the entire law down to two points—love God, and love your neighbor—yet we can’t even keep that? How many times have you seen so-called Christians bite and devour and gossip and backbite and slander their fellow brothers and sisters? How rare is it to see a community of believers genuinely bear one another’s burdens?
This is why we need grace. This is why we are sometimes weary and heavy laden, because no matter how easy Jesus has made it, no matter how hard we try, we still trip over the law. This is why the next point, the last point, is so important.
Matthew 11:28-30 shows us the authority of Jesus, the invitation of Jesus, the promise of Jesus, and the yoke of Jesus. We surrender to his authority, respond to His invitation, rest in His promise, and submit to His teaching. But most importantly, in verse 28 we see…
5. The Heart of Jesus (v. 29)
Come to me all who are weary and heavily laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.
There are only two verses in all of scripture where the heart of God is described. Job 9:4 says that God is wise in heart. And here, Jesus tells us that He is gentle and lowly in heart. Wise, gentle, and lowly.
I don’t know about you, but I can trust my heart to a God who is wise in heart, gentle in heart, and lowly in heart.
Jesus is with us, sharing our burdens, giving us the strength to overcome.
His yoke is not one of oppression or coercion, but rather one of grace, love, and freedom. It is a yoke that brings us into a relationship with Him, where we learn from Him and grow in our understanding and love for God. It is a yoke that aligns our hearts with His, that guides our steps according to His will, and that empowers us to live a life of purpose and meaning.
Ultimately, as we take on His yoke, we are not left unchanged. We are molded, shaped, and transformed into His likeness. That’s what happens when you journey so close to another. That’s what happens in close proximity and relationship. You begin to see the world through His eyes, to love as He loves, to serve as He serves. His yoke is not a burden, but a tool of transformation.
His invitation goes out to all of us, every weary and burdened soul here today. Come, He says, and find rest. Come, and learn… He is gentle and lowly, kind and full of grace.
Let's pray together.
