The Greatest Invitation

Transcript

Rob McFarlane: 0:15

We all like to receive an invitation, whether it's to a birthday party or a wedding. We love invitations. And today we are looking at the greatest invitation ever made. Let's read Matthew chapter 11, verse 25 to verse 30. And I'm reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible. 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. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 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 come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light whenever we receive an invitation invitation, we want to know a number of things about it. From whom does the invitation come? To whom is the invitation addressed? And what is the nature of the invitation? We also want to know how do we respond to the invitation? Today we're going to look at these four questions about this invitation from Jesus. So number one from whom does the invitation come well it's from Jesus Christ the son of God he says in Matthew chapter 11 verse 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. We see that there's a unique reciprocal relationship between the Father and the Son. The Bible is very clear that the only way that we can come to the Father is through Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is the one who reveals the Father to us. Jesus said in John chapter 14 verse 6, I am the way, the truth and the No one comes to the Father except through me. He's the only one who can introduce us into a living relationship with God. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, saved to a wonderful relationship with the Father. And the one who's issuing this great invitation to us is none other than the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Number two, to whom is the invitation addressed? Well, it's addressed to you and me. Let's read Matthew 11 verse 28. He says, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. It's addressed to everyone Everyone, all people who have a heavy burden are laboring and struggling in life. And life involves heavy burdens, doesn't it? For example, we have temptations that we are burdened with and we might be struggling with. Or perhaps it's your responsibilities and you're feeling a heavy burden with those. It may be fear, guilt, In Matthew 11, verse 25 and 26, Jesus says, God's will is that we come to him with humble, receptive hearts to receive his help in time and place. That we don't become wise in our own eyes or self-sufficient, but that we grow into a dependence on our relationship with Jesus Christ and the Father. Today, if you're under a difficult or heavy load, then you're not living under His gracious will. God wants us to come to Him and He says, My yoke is easy and my burden is light. So the invitation is issued to you and me. Number three, what is the nature of the invitation? What does Jesus offer us? Well, we read in Matthew 11 verse 28 and 29, come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. We see in these verses, we're invited to do two things. To come to him and give him our burden. And number two, to take up his yoke. Now, we need to understand that there's a divine exchange that can take place. This takes place where we recognize that Jesus has paid a price that we couldn't pay. He paid for our sin and he makes it possible for us to receive his righteousness. This exchange takes place and it's described in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. I love that. I love the fact that we have been given an invitation and the invitation is to come to him and to give him our burdens. But not just that, to take up his yoke and to learn from him. Now, when we talk about the yoke, they would know in the time that Jesus was speaking that he was referring to a yoke that was placed on oxen and he's saying that you need to come alongside me and let me teach you how to pull the loads of life. The picture behind this verse is a young ox learning from an old experience and stronger ox coming alongside and being yoked together with that ox and then experiencing the power of partnership and the power of working together together with another who's stronger than you, who's in the fight with you, who never leaves you or forsakes you. And it makes the burden easier and lighter. We need to bring our burdens to him. The Bible says, cast your care on the Lord because he cares for you. But the Bible also says that we should take up our cross and follow Jesus. Now, taking up our cross and following Jesus is recognizing he paid the price for me and I need to learn from him. I need to learn humility. I need to learn servanthood. I need to learn faithfulness. I need to walk in step with him. Jesus has issued this wonderful invitation to you and me. Number four, how do we respond to the invitation? Well, I believe it's a daily response to Jesus. Again, let's read Matthew 11, 28 and 29. We see four words in Matthew 11, 28 and 29 that show our response. Come. take learn and find come to him take his yoke upon you learn from him and you will find rest for your souls wonderful we start a lifelong walk of faith and repentance when we follow Jesus you see repentance is not just a one-time thing it's something that's a lifestyle and and walking by faith is a lifestyle I like the way Acts chapter 3 verse 19 and 20 put it repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out and that times of refreshing may come from the Lord and that he may send the Messiah who has been appointed for you even Jesus and constantly we're making these about turns in our lives where we realize that we are carrying a load we shouldn't carry when we're living in a way that we shouldn't live that we're entertaining thoughts we shouldn't entertain we make a decision to turn from a self-centered life and turn to God we repent and turn to God and the result is our shortcomings are wiped out and he refreshes us with his presence what a wonderful invitation you and I have today as we pray let's ask the Holy Spirit to show us what he wants us to do as a result of what we've heard in today's sermon. Remember, the invitation is issued by Jesus Christ. The invitation is issued to you and I. We need to respond to that invitation. Let's do that today. Father God, thank you for sending your son, Jesus Christ, to pay the price for our sin so that we could be reconciled to you by faith in your son. Today, we want to respond to this wonderful invitation. You, through Jesus, said, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden. And we come to you, Jesus. We bring our burdens to you today. We lay them down. We thank you that you have invited us to do that. And today, whatever is troubling you, let's lay it down before the Lord. Thank you that you said, take my yoke upon you. And today we choose to take your yoke upon us, to follow you, to be your apprentices, your disciples, to learn your ways, to become followers of Jesus thank you that you never leave us alone but you're with us always and things that we cannot do in our own strength we can do because you are yoked together with us thank you that we don't have to parent on our own but we have you with us thank you that we don't have to fulfill our calling or ministry on our own because you work alongside us and you teach us and you lead us Today, we repent from living a self-reliant and self-centered life. And we choose today to turn to you and we ask for your seasons of refreshing to come upon us in Jesus' precious name. Let's ask the Holy Spirit, what is he saying to us now? Pause for a moment and listen to his still small voice. Thank you, Lord, that you who have begun a good work in us will bring it to completion. Thank you that you are at work in us to work and will according to your good pleasure. We thank you for these things in Jesus' name. Amen.