Tabor Baptist Church

Introduction

• These verses speak of spiritual rest
• Matt 11:28-30
• Do you feel troubled in conscience, heaviness in heart, feeling depressed due to some hurt, spoken harshly, living for self and not for God?
• Do you recognise that you have a void - an aching heart?
• The Lord Jesus knows the heart
• Jesus says come to "me" - not to a religion or building
• Jesus was so approachable
• People often came to Him
• Jesus came to their homes
• Jesus did condemn them but understood their greatest need
• He was gentle and humble

An invitation to rest by coming

• The invitation is coming from Jesus
• He was a man but He was also the very Son of God
• He was without sin but came into a world crushed by sin
• He gave many invitations: 'Come to me'
• There was an aching void in many a heart, people were thirsting for reality
• He came to a society full of religion that just placed heavy burdens on people
• Matt 23:4
• False representations, gossip and slander about Jesus - Matt 11:19
• People sometimes followed Him just for His miracles - Matt 11:21 & 23
• He glorified God - Matt 11:25
• The truth would be hidden from the proud but revealed to those who hungered and thirsted for righteousness
• In the midst of all that people were saying about Jesus, He still gave God glory and still invited people to come to Him
• Jesus knows our very hearts
• He sees all - both the everyday and the aching void in the soul of man
• We have so much in our society yet there is much conflict and dysfunction within our society
• Anxiety, suicide, depression and increasing mental health issues
• Jesus knows this pain
• Abuse, neglect, blame culture
• A society without limits and boundaries
• There is much burden do to sin
• Jesus invites us to come to Him
• There is no one else who can heal our soul
• Example from Hymn: 'I heard the voice of Jesus say'
• Have you come to the Lord Jesus?
• There is no-one who is outside of the grace of Jesus
• If you come to Jesus there is forgiveness and cleansing and rest for your soul

An invitation to rest by learning

• "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me" (11:29)
• You must come to Jesus first
• Isa 55:1 - come with empty hands, come as you are
• Having done this then take His yoke upon you
• Yoke - to come under the following/instruction of a teacher
• If you take Jesus' yoke you come under His teaching and authority
• A yoke requires two to work well in tandem
• To come into Jesus' service - which is a delight
• Jesus commandments are not budernsome but a joy
• Jesus will bare the heavier parts (11:30)
• Coming forward is not enough for salvation
• The rich man came forward but was not saved - he was not prepare to take the yoke
• There is much to learn when you come to Jesus (of Him and of the Bible)
• You learn in His service, as you obey
• Spurgeon: "rest in motion"

An invitation like no other

• No religious leader ever gave an invitation like this
• No other person has said they can forgive your sin, bring you fellowship with God
• No other person was gentle, meek and lowly like Jesus (12:20)
• Jesus is a tender Saviour
• Think of the woman caught in adultery - Jesus did not condemn her but forgave her repentant heart
• Think of Simon Peter - a fisher of men
• Think of the thief on the cross - "today you will be with Me in paradise"
• Do you feel the desire to come to Jesus?
• Jesus desires that we would come to Him
• Isa 55:6-7 - "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near"
• Come and know God abundantly