{"id":2958,"date":"2014-07-16T10:18:01","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T17:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/?p=2958"},"modified":"2014-07-16T10:18:01","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T17:18:01","slug":"pentecost-4-easy-yoke-matthew-1125-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/?p=2958","title":{"rendered":"Pentecost 4 – “Easy Yoke” (Matthew 11:25-30"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A-66<\/a>Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Gospel, which was read earlier.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s Gospel reading, Jesus makes some outrageous claims about His person and His ability to get people right with God the Father, and goes on to make a fantastic offer to all who feel beat, bushed, and burdened. In fact, Christ\u2019s claims about Himself are so extravagant and His offer so unbelievable, one must wonder if perhaps this is nothing more than a ruse of some sorts because it sounds too good to be true.<\/p>\n

Of the outrageous claims that Jesus makes in His ministry, there is one today that sticks out like a sore thumb: \u201cAll 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.\u201d<\/i><\/span> To say something this ludicrous is beyond that which even the prophets of old could not say. In fact, no one dared to say something as outrageous as this because if they did, they would be put to death as a heretic. With death charges possible, Jesus makes such a statement as this and more with what He does throughout His ministry.<\/p>\n

After making such an outrageous claim as this, Jesus makes a fantastic offer, one that no one before or after has been able to make and keep. Sure, there have been those who have made such an offer before, but in the end, they were unable to fulfill such an offer. Just what is the offer that Jesus comes and makes? Our Lord simply says, \u201cCome 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.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCome to Me,\u201d says Jesus, but He doesn\u2019t mean \u201cIf you work hard enough to make your way to Me, I\u2019ll reward you.\u201d No, think instead of the parent who scoops up a little child while at the same time saying, \u201cYou come here!\u201d, and you have a better idea of the Savior. He has rest for all those who are weary and heavy laden, and that would be you. There are two types of people in this world: those who are weary and heavy laden with sin and weakness and know it, and those who are weary and heavy laden with sin and weakness and don\u2019t know it. The former understand that the salvation isn\u2019t about the rules of daily living; if it is, they\u2019ll never get the work done. Thus, they\u2019re happy to be rested by the Savior. The latter don\u2019t think that the burden is heavy, so they see no need for the Savior. Instead, they\u2019ll seek out salvation by their own rules. And they\u2019ll never make it.<\/p>\n

Note carefully again the words of Jesus. Not \u201ctake My yoke upon you and pull with Me,\u201d but \u201ctake My yoke upon you and learn from Me.\u201d Hear from His Word that He has paid the price for your sins. Hear from His Word that He gives you grace and faith and salvation and all good things. He does not come like the ox-driver, whip in hand and demanding a good performance before He rewards you. No, He is gentle and lowly and humble in heart, so much so that He gently rode into Jerusalem, suffered most lowly, and humbly went to the cross in your place. Because He\u2019s suffered God\u2019s wrath for you, you have rest for your souls with God forever. His yoke is easy and His burden is light, because the price for your salvation is already paid.<\/p>\n

The Christian life is not about being a better person and it never has been. We get to be real, true, honest sinners with a real true, powerful Savior. When we fall short and fail, we\u2019re not surprised. We\u2019re not home in heaven yet. We don\u2019t invest a ton of time and energy in trying harder for salvation, because anything that starts with us is doomed to failure.<\/p>\n

The burden, the yoke, that we bear and carry has all been carried and done for us by Jesus Christ. It is Christ that carried the burden of our every shortfall, every time we failed to keep God\u2019s Law perfectly. It is Christ who wore the yoke of obedience that feels to us like being trapped in a vicious cycle: \u201cYou therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.\u201d<\/i> <\/span>There is no way for us to be perfect as God demands and as Jesus tells us. Instead, it is Christ\u2019s perfect obedience, His perfect keeping of every law of God, that is given to us, that is credited to us.<\/p>\n

The reason that Jesus can say this is that He is the Son of God who entered history in order to save us from our own sin. While we can do nothing to please God, everything that Jesus does is pleasing to God.\u00a0While we cannot endure the punishment that will satisfies God\u2019s justice, Jesus\u2019 sacrifice on the cross totally satisfied God\u2019s justice for you.\u00a0Jesus is the one who takes our hard yoke on Himself and gives us the easy yoke of forgiveness in its place.\u00a0He is the one who took up our heavy burden of sin and replaced it with the light burden of His righteousness.\u00a0He has taken the labor and burden of false belief and replaced it with the rest of true faith.<\/p>\n

Jesus has done all the work that makes us right with God.\u00a0The blessings of that work become available to us when the Holy Spirit works faith in us.\u00a0The Holy Spirit establishes the faith that receives the gifts of God \u2013 forgiveness, life, salvation.\u00a0At the same time, the Holy Spirit creates a new being in us \u2014 a holy child of God.\u00a0We now have the easy yoke of Christ\u2019s forgiveness and the light burden of His righteousness.<\/p>\n

Yoked to Christ we find peace; not toil and burden and work. How are you saved and redeemed?\u00a0Is it because of anything you do to work or earn forgiveness?\u00a0Do you have to toil and labor to get your little slice of heaven?\u00a0Does your salvation consist of Christ does His share and you do yours?\u00a0Of course not! We are saved because of God\u2019s grace alone, which is ours because of the redemptive work of Christ alone.\u00a0In terms of salvation, it really is easy, just like Christ says.\u00a0We are yoked to Christ through faith alone.\u00a0How much easier can it get? Trust in God above all things.\u00a0Trust; that is, have faith in the fact that Christ has done it all, and it is finished.\u00a0Trust in the fact that He is with you always, even when it feels like you\u2019re being crushed under the crosses and burdens of life in this fallen and sinful world, for it is precisely here, under the burdens and loads and aches and pains and despairs and crosses of this life that we find Christ\u2019s Word and Promise to be true: \u201cI am with you always, to the very end of the age.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Life is a rat race, a struggle. You get out of it what you put into it if you\u2019re lucky; and sooner or later, you can\u2019t put enough into it to sustain. That\u2019s how life works in this sinful fallen world. But that isn\u2019t how salvation works with your sinless Savior. The Lord Jesus declares that He gives it to you freely as a parent gives to a little child. While your struggles and setbacks dictate that you labor wearily and bear heavy loads in this life, it is not so for eternal life. Your Savior bids you, \u201cCome unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.\u201d<\/i><\/span> That rest and salvation are yours, because you are forgiven for all of your sins on account of Jesus Christ and the easy yoke that He gives to you. In Jesus\u2019 name, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Gospel, which was read earlier. In today\u2019s Gospel reading, Jesus makes some outrageous claims about His person and His ability to get people right with God the Father, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26096,9016],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pentecost","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2960,"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2958\/revisions\/2960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}