Matthew 11:28-30

Are you tired?  Worn out?  Burned out on religion?  Come to Me.  Get away with Me and you will 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.  I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with Me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.  Matthew 11:28-30 The Message. 

Come to Me all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.  All of you take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.  For my yoke is easy and My burden is light.  Matthew 11:28-30 HCSB.

Thoughts, quotes and paraphrasing from Charles H. Spurgeon's sermon on Matthew 11:28-30:  (2 types of rest)  First, invited to receive rest = ALL.  The description of the person invited is both active and passive.  "All ye that labor" refers to the activity of bearing the yoke and ready to labor after salvation.  "Heavy-laden" refers to the passive condition where a burden is sustaines  they are pressed down and sorely wearied by the load they bear.  (All this refers to our performance, to endeavoring to save ourselves.)  "In effect the Saviour tells them, 'This is not the way to rest, your self-imposed labors will end in disappointment; cease your wearisome exertions, and believe in me, for I will at once give you rest--the rest which my laborers have earned for believers.'"  Rest is given, not earned; it is a gift of His grace.  Next the precept, "Come." It is not "Learn" but "Come"; to come is to leave one thing and to advance to another.  "Come, then ye laboring and heavy laden, leave your legal labors, leave your self-reliant efforts, leave your sins, leave your presumptions, leave all in which you hitherto have trusted, and come to Jesus; advance towards and rely upon the Saviour."  "Repentance and faith make up this "Come"- the repentance which leaves that place where you now stand, the faith which comes into reliance upon Jesus."  Come is present tense and means come now and He says come to Me, Jesus, period.  "Observe it is nothing but that one word, "Come."  It is not "Do;" it is not even "Learn."  It is not, "Take up my yoke," that will follow after, but must never be forced out of its proper place.  TO OBTAIN THIS REST, WHICH IS A MATTER OF GIFT - all that is asked of you is that you come to have it. Next it is a rest given freely by Jesus; we possess it at once and it is ours forever.  It is a present rest.  'It is perfect and complete in itself.  In the blood and righteousness of Jesus our peace is perfect.'  'I will give you rest' comes before, "Ye shall find rest."  Second, is the rest of one who is already at rest, the one who has received a given rest and now discovers the found rest. It is the rest of a learner - "Learn of me, and ye shall find rest."  This refers to the day to day learning at the Saviour's feet.  You have rest from your burden; now you find a rest, in Christ, which exceeds what you asked or even thought.  It is also a rest in service.  The Christian will not find rest in being idle.  "True rest to the mind of the child of God is rest on the wing, rest in emotion, rest in service, not rest with the yoke off, but with the yoke on."  Do not merely submit to be the Lord's servant, but seek his service.  Ask, 'What can I do' and be desirous to do it voluntarily.  Bear Christ's burden, which is his cross - expect to be reproached, etc.  Then rest through learning, it is implied that in order to learn of Christ we must lay aside all prejudices of the past, those things that proven our finding peace; any preconceived notions of what religion should be.  Learn from his example to be "meek and lowly in heart," and then you will "find rest unto your souls."  Meek - not proud, not defending self, not irritated, discouraged or inclined to do no more because of lack of appreciation; the meek spirit goes on working and is not offended.   "The lowly heart says, 'Not my will but thine be done; let God be glorified in me." Jesus says, 'for I am meek and lowly in heart;' as if to show that as believers grow in grace, and enjoy more rest, they see more of Jesus and know more of him."  Conclusion:  If you find rest to your souls you will not be moved by the judgment of me.  If you learn of Jesus you will have rest from the fear of men.  Next you will be delivered from fretfulness at want of success.  Learning of Jesus we too shall rest; we shall rejoice in whatever the Lord determines and we shall thank God for all he ordains.  Think about this, "The Saviour says to us, 'I am bearing one end of the yoke on my shoulder; come, my disciple, place your neck under the other side of it, and then learn of me.  Keep step with me, be as I am, do as I do.  I am meek and lowly in heart; your heart must be like mine, and then we will work together in blessed fellowship, and you will find that working with me is a happy thing; for my yoke is easy to me, and will be to you.  Come, then true yoke-fellow, come and be yoked with me, take my yoke upon you, and learn of me."  

Wow, I know that is a lot (trust me, there was a whole lot more ;) but wow!  As much as I want to go on, I will stop.  You read the Word and allow Him to teach you what He wants.  I will do the same. 

Father God, thank You for Your Word and thank You for those that love You that have gone before us.  May we come to You, recognizing that is all You require and that You even provide the ability and strength we need to come.  Rest is so hard to grasp in our world, Lord. We think we know what it is when all along we do not.  Please help us to realize that we can have Your rest and that it is counter to what we think of as rest.  It is a gift given by You that is complete in and of itself, not something to strive for but to receive.  God, our entire lives we are taught that we must do, that we need to perform, that we need to behave a certain way and it just isn't true.  We work so hard to be a certain way when all along we need to work on receiving, learning to come, at surrendering and repenting.  Help us to receive Your grace and learn to walk with You.  God for me personally, I need to quit trying so hard to be pleasing and accept that I am pleasing to You because of Jesus.  I need to get busy about what You have for me; help me to know what that is as I have spent my life being busy about so many of the wrong things.  Forgive me God for being so hard-headed and stubborn and for being unwilling to trust You and that what You say is truth for me and that Your rest is given completely not in stages or in part.  May I learn to walk with You and obey Your lead, not my own thoughts or opinions or those of others.  May I step out of my self-imposed ideas of what it means to bear Your burden and even to rest and may I be willing to obey You.  Give me ears to hear and eyes to see, Lord and the ability to experience the rest that comes from You alone.