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| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) |
Come Unto Me
Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, most Christians have (what we might call) a “go to” verse or passage we turn to when facing difficult circumstances. When we’re feeling afraid, we might go to Psalm 27 or Psalm 46 where we read: “God is our Light and our salvation, whom shall we fear?” “God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in times of trouble.”
If we’re worried or feeling anxious, we go to Philippians 4: 6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”
When we’re facing temptation, we go to 1 Corinthians 10:13 which says, “No temptation has seized you except that which is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear...”
Then there’s Matthew 11:28-30. This is the ‘go to’ passage for us when we’re weak and weary, when we’re weighed down with heavy burdens. We hear these precious words of our Savior calling us to come – to come to Him, to lay all our burdens at his feet, and to find rest. And our hearts melt, our burden is made lighter, and we are blessed with rest and peace.
Our theme for this passage: Our Lord Invites us to Come to Him and Find Rest.
1. The Context of this Invitation
2. The Nature of this Invitation
3. The Recipients of this Invitation
1. The Context of this Call
People of God, the words before us are words of gracious invitation. In fact, pastor John Piper called this the sweetest invitation in the Bible. Jesus our Savior, God’s only begotten Son calls out to us saying: “Come to me”.
But what exactly does this mean? Who is called to come to Jesus, and how should we come? We’re going to explore the answers to those questions as we look at the surrounding context. Let’s start by going back to Matthew chapter 10.
This is where Jesus sends out his 12 disciples on their first mission trip. But notice, it was not a foreign missionary trip. Rather, they were to be engaged in local missions. The disciples were only to go to the cities and towns of the Jews – to gather in the lost sheep of Israel. Look at verse 5: they were to go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans. Yes, the time would come for the Gospel to be preached to Gentiles and Samarians as well, but first the Gospel must go to the Jews, then later to the Gentiles.
Then in chapter 11, we see the interaction between Jesus and the disciples of John the Baptist. By this time, John was in prison, and his disciples came to Jesus carrying a message from John. John wanted to know if Jesus was truly the Messiah.
Notice how Jesus responded. He told them to report to John what they had seen and heard. #1: The powerful preaching of the Gospel that called sinners to repentance; and #2: The miraculous signs that accompanied the Word: the blind see; the lame walk; lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor are made rich by the preaching of the Good News.
By his authoritative preaching, and by his mighty works, Jesus had clearly revealed himself to be the promised Messiah. So, John’s disciples returned to tell him the Good News. But then, right after that, Jesus turned his attention to the crowds and he made a series of denouncements.
He did this because they too had seen and heard. They had seen his miracles and heard his sermons. The proof that Jesus was the Messiah was clearly set before them, but they did not believe. John the Baptist preached about Christ and His coming as he ministered in the wilderness. But Jesus said (vs 7 ff) -- you didn’t go out in the wilderness to listen to what John said – instead you went out to witness a spectacle; to be entertained; to see a wild man who wore a coat of camel’s hair and ate locusts and honey.
Then Jesus denounced the church leaders who had criticized John’s ministry and his own. In verse 18 Jesus said: “John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said he has a demon. Then I (Jesus) came eating and drinking, and they said, “Look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collector and sinners!” Jesus is basically saying: no one can preach to you!
When hearts of the hearers are hard, when there is hatred and contempt for the preacher, it doesn’t matter what the preacher preaches; it doesn’t matter if he can do miraculous signs. The truth is that hard-hearted people will not, they cannot listen or believe. They can only find fault.
Then in verse 20, Jesus went on to pronounce ‘woe’ or judgment on three Galilean cities where he has done most of his miracles: Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. Jesus said if the miracles that had been performed in Chorazin and Bethsaida had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in dust and ashes.
As for those living in Capernaum – Jesus said: “you think you’re going to be exalted to heaven”. You think you’ve done the right things and have the ‘right stuff’ to inherit the kingdom of heaven. But I tell you, you’re going to be brought down to hell. The truth is, they rejected the teachings and miracles of Jesus. So, Jesus said: “If the miracles performed in your city would have been performed in Sodom, that city would have remained to this day.”
You see, Jesus went to each of those cities and he called out to them saying: “Come to Me”. But they did not come. So clearly, not everyone who is called, not everyone who is invited to come to Jesus, will come. How do we explain that?
Take note of two things. First, Jesus knew exactly what it would have taken for the people of Tyre and Sidon and even Sodom to repent – and yet God did not perform those miracles there.
Instead, they were left in their sin. Why is that? The reason is provided in verse 25. God the Father chose to hide these things … what things? The things that would have brought about repentance and salvation.
God chose to hide these things from the “wise and understanding. God the Father chose to hide these things from those wicked cities, and from the religious elite, and from those who were righteous in their own eyes, and from those who were puffed up in their knowledge and pride – from those who were too blind to see their own sin and God’s wrath against it (for reference, see Isaiah 6. 9-10; also Matthew 13:14-15 – it was for this reason that Jesus began to teach in parables).
Instead, the Father chose to reveal “these things” to little children (metaphorically speaking): to spiritual babes and infants. God chose to reveal those things to the weary and weighed down. To the humble, the needy, to those who were weak and powerless, to those who felt the burden of their own sin and guilt, and the immensity of their sin and misery, and their need for a Savior!! To such as these, the Father revealed the way of salvation, the pathway to repentance.
It’s truly amazing when you think about it, but in these few verses we see the majesty and the mystery of the doctrine of election and reprobation all at once. God the Father, according to His own foreknowledge and good pleasure, chose to reveal to some the knowledge of salvation in His Son Jesus Christ – so that they would come to Him by way of faith and repentance. And God also chose, according to His own foreknowledge and good pleasure, to hide, to conceal this saving knowledge from others – and to leave them in their sinful pride and arrogance.
In that way, the cities, the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum serve as a cautionary tale to the hearers in Jesus’s day and to us in our day as well. As one commentator wrote: “Those people were given a great light and had an incredible opportunity to see firsthand the miracle-working of the Messiah.” But they wasted that opportunity. They turned their backs on Jesus and His saving grace.
But what about us? What will we do? No, we haven’t had the opportunity to witness Christ’s powerful miracles. However, the Bible testifies to the mighty signs and wonders Jesus did. And no, we never heard a single sermon preached by Jesus our Savior. Yet, his voice still calls out to us on every page of the Scriptures – and the Word of God proclaims the very same Gospel.
So, it begs the question: how will WE respond? How will we come to Jesus? Will we make the same mistake as the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum -- and the rest of the Jews who rejected Christ? Will we come as those who are wise and understanding in our own eyes – as those who take our salvation for granted, who put confidence in our religious pedigree, in our solid Christian upbringing, in our faithful church attendance, or in our high sense of morality?
Or will we come to Jesus as little children? Will we come to Jesus as we are -- humble, weak, needy; as poor, wretched, and blind, as empty, broken vessels who know our sin and misery, who have a desperate need a Savior? Yes, this is a Gracious Invitation that our Savior extends to all sinners – but then we must respond and come to Him in faith and repentance, not in self-confidence and self-righteousness.
2. The Nature of this Invitation
So that is the context for this gracious invitation given by Jesus: “Come to me”. Secondly, and briefly, I want to look at the ‘Nature of this Invitation’. What I want us to see is that these words of Jesus come in the form of a command. The word come is a verb; it is in the imperative mood, which is used when making a demand of others or when issuing advice or instructions.
While I believe it is still appropriate to use the language of invitation here, while Jesus is indeed summoning and calling sinners to come to Him, we must remember that it is Jesus who is speaking. It is Jesus who is issuing thus invitation, and as verse 27 reveals, Jesus is the one to whom the Father has handed over all things – Jesus is the One to whom the Father has given all power and authority in heaven and earth. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is King of all creation!
What bearing does that have? Boys and girls, when the King of all creation invites you, when the King summons you to come to him, what should you do? Should we shrug our shoulders and say, “No thanks, I have better things to do”; Or, “What you have to offer it’s all that important”?
No! When the king calls, we go. That’s it. That’s the nature of this invitation. It has kingly authority behind it – and when the king calls, we come. There’s an urgency to this call. We dare not ignore it or disregard it.
Notice also Jesus calls us to come to HIM! This point is noted by many commentators and rightly so! Jesus does not say: Come to the law! Or come to the temple/church. Or, come to circumcision or the ceremonies; or come to Reformed Theology; or come to Reformed piety – living a clean and holy life. Yes, all those things are important, and they all have their place, but first we must come to Jesus – or else those other things are meaningless; they are empty without faith and trust in Christ as our Savior and Lord.
That begs this question for you and for me: Have you and I truly come to Jesus? It’s not that we should all doubt our salvation, but it’s more that we want to be sure that our faith is resting upon Jesus – and only Jesus and His finished work -- not upon habit, or tradition, or ritual or ceremony.
Keep in mind what Jesus warned his people back in Matthew 7.22-23 – that on the last day, the day of judgment, there will be many who will lay claim to knowing the Lord, who thought they were safely in the fold, but the truth is, they never came to Jesus. They never put their faith in him. “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”
Jesus, our Savior, our Lord and King invites us, he commands us to come to Him, so let us come in faith and repentance.
3. The Recipients of this Invitation
Thirdly, we consider the recipients of this invitation. Here I want to dig a little deeper and look at the ones whom Jesus calls. First, he says “all”. All means everyone. And then Jesus adds: “all you who labor and are heavy laden,” or as the NIV puts it: “all you who are weary and burdened.” What does Jesus mean by this? Who does he have in mind, in particular?
First of all, the idea of laboring and being weary has to do with the weight and awareness of our own sin and misery. It presses down upon us and we feel, we sense the crushing weight. Earlier, in the first point, I made the case that Jesus is calling out to all those who (like little children) are humble and weak, poor and needy; wretched and blind, empty and broken – all those who know their sin and misery and feel the desperate need of a Savior.
This call extends to unbelievers who come to Jesus for the first time. But it also extends to believing sinners who come to Jesus again and again. While it’s true that we are not to remain as little children in terms of our knowledge of the Word and growth in faith; we ARE to remain as little children when it comes to our humility and acknowledging our weakness and frailty and our total dependence upon Jesus our Savior.
So Jesus has in view the weight we carry from our own sinfulness – he does not want us to try to carry that load, but rather to unburden ourselves by confessing our sins to Him, by laying our sins at the foot of the cross -- so to speak -- so that we can break free from the guilt of our sins, and so that we can have the assurance that all of our sins are forgiven through His precious blood.
The second thing Jesus mentions (in vs 28) is a heavy burden (come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden). So, notice that: first, Jesus has in view the weariness we feel due to the weight of our own sins. secondly, he has in view a burden that someone else has been placed upon us.
What burden could that be? Remember the audience to whom Jesus is speaking. They are Jews. The Jews had the law of Moses, the law of God which they were called to obey – but which no one could obey perfectly (see Acts 15:10). And, as if that was not enough, the Pharisees added to this burden with their 613 extra laws of piety (man-made laws of how many steps one can take on the Sabbath Day, or their laws governing divorce, or oath taking among other things).
The Pharisees and religious leaders of the day were not helping God’s people on their way to heaven. No. They were doing just the opposite. They were placing burdens on their back as they were leading them down the pathway to hell.
For good reason, Jesus called the people to unburden themselves, to free themselves from all of this, to escape the crushing weight of sin, to escape the righteous requirements of the law, to escape the cruel bondage of the Pharisees. Jesus said: “Leave it all behind and come to me! Put your faith and trust in me and my righteousness. Trust in my perfect obedience. Trust in the cleansing power of my blood which I will pour out for you on the cross, once and for all.”
That is what those words mean in particular. But they also have meaning as we apply them in general. As Christians, as those who have faith in Jesus, we have already been washed in his blood and redeemed from our sins. However, we need to keep coming to Jesus to be unburdened and find rest.
As God’s people, we still fight against the power of indwelling sin, and we still grow weary of the battle – especially when we fall into sin, and we see the grief, the pain and damage that our sin does. We can become discouraged and feel a sense of distance from God. We need to come to Jesus, pour out our hearts once more and ask for God’s mercy, grace and forgiveness.
We also feel the immense weight of the curse of sin when we (or others around us) encounter trials, afflictions, adversity, the death of loved ones. We say how our hearts are heavy – weighed down – with a burden of sorrow and sadness and grief. We mourn, we weep when our friends and family die -- even as Jesus wept at the death of his friend Lazarus.
All of us here (at least the adults) have felt that sharp pain, that deep sorrow and grief. It weighs heavily on us. As a pastor and elders and deacons, we carry that burden of grief as we go from one bedside to another. We see the sickness and suffering of beloved church members and our own relatives --and we cry out to the Lord, Lord come quickly. Put an end to all of this pain.
But that too is a weight, it is a burden that is in view here in this passage. Jesus says, Come to me with those burdens. No burden, no weight, no sorrow is too heavy!! Lay those burdens down. They are not yours to carry. They are mine to carry for you!
Yes, there is a time to grieve, and weep, and feel sorrow and pain – but we do not grieve as the world grieves –as those who have no hope. Rather, we are to grieve as those whose heavy burden has been lifted; as those who have a living hope -- the promise of a risen and exalted Savior. And he has promised that all those who believe in Him, even though they die, yet shall they live.
He is also the one who promised us that on that great and final day, He shall meet us in the sky. And He shall declare to us that all things are new! He shall wipe every tear from our eyes – and he shall finally give us rest -- that eternal, unending, uninterrupted rest from all the weariness and burdens of this life. For there in heaven, in the new heavens and the new earth, there shall be no more death, or mourning, or crying or pain.
No more weariness; nothing to weigh us down; no more heavy burdens.
Beloved, Jesus says “Come to me.” May we all hear his voice today and come to Him in faith, and we shall find rest for our souls – now and forevermore. Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Pastor Keith Davis, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
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