The Gift of His Gentleness
Sermon Notes
Intro
Today we’re starting the Christmas season off with a new teaching series we’re calling Unwrapped. It’s about discovering the heart of the Savior, discovering the heart of Jesus. Many of you already know Christmas is about the gift of Jesus, the incarnational birth of Jesus, but we want to unwrap the incredible heart of Jesus. A lot of times Christians focus on what Jesus did on the cross, because the cross is our salvation and empowering motivation for Christian living. But we also need to focus on who Jesus is, because the cross is meant to offer us salvation, and also draw us deeper into the heart of our Savior. Many of you know what Jesus did for you externally, but do you know how he feels about you internally?...Many of you know he died for you, but do you really know his heart for you?...If you’re a skeptic you might know what he did historically, but do you know his heart behind what he did?...Do you know not just his actions, but also his heart?...It’s one thing to know the actions of Jesus, it’s another to know his very heart for you.
This series is about unwrapping the incredible heart of Jesus, unwrapping the incredible gift of who Jesus is, so we can find rest in the incredible heart and character of Jesus. We’ll study a few texts to learn what the bible reveals about the incredible heart of Jesus, and today we’re talking specifically about finding rest for our burdens in life. Both skeptics and believers have burdens in life, and today we’ll see there’s rest for those burdens in the gentle heart of Christ. So let’s turn to Matthew 11:28-30 and get into it. If you open your bible to the middle, keep turning right, you’ll find Matthew 11:28-30. The title of today’s message is The Gift of His Gentleness, and the big idea is there’s rest for your burdens in life, in the gentle heart of Christ...There’s rest for your burdens in life, in the gentle heart of Christ...
Context:
Here’s your context. At this point in Matthew’s gospel Jesus has already commissioned the 12 disciples for ministry, and now he’s teaching and preaching in some of their hometowns. Some of the people repent of their sins and turn to Jesus, but some don’t. To those who repent and turn to Jesus he gives the gift of Matthew 11:28-30, which we’re about to study. Now as we study this text we’ll address 3 questions: #1 What is the heart of Christ? #2 How can the heart of Christ affect our daily lives? #3 How can we unwrap the heart of Christ? Let’s check it out.
The Word:
Matthew 11:28-30 states, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart...” There’s the heart of Jesus...There’s the heart of Christ, which is our 1st question.
#1 What is the heart of Christ? = Jesus tells us his heart is lowly and humble. The original Greek can also translate as gentle and humble. In all 4 gospels, in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, there’s a total of 89 chapters combined, and this is the only place where Jesus describes his own heart. The gospel writers teach us all kinds of things about Jesus. They teach us about his life, his good deeds, his incredible teachings. They teach us about his character, his holiness, his love, mercy, and grace. They teach us about his unjust arrest, his painful death, his incredible resurrection. They teach us all kinds of things about Jesus, but this is the one place where Jesus is explicit about his own heart. It’s the one place where he allows us to gaze into the inner core of who he is, the inner core of what kind of Lord and Savior he is. He says he’s gentle and humble in heart. Of all the adjectives he could’ve used to describe his heart, he uses gentle and humble in heart. He could’ve said strong and superior, powerful and perfect, holy and just, and he would’ve been right! But instead he says he’s gentle and humble in heart. This means his deepest, most desired posture isn’t to point a condemning finger at you, it’s to extend a gentle a hand to you. His posture isn’t to snub his nose at you, it’s to humbly approach you...because he’s gentle and humble in heart. This, according to his own words, is the very heart of Christ.
Now what we just learned about the heart of Christ, was lived out in the life of Christ. What Jesus claimed with his words, he proved with his actions. Who he is has been historically proven and displayed by what he’s done. His heart has been proven and displayed by his life.
ï He was gentle and humble in heart with people suffering from leprosy.
ï He was gentle and humble in heart with the woman caught in adultery.
ï He was gentle and humble in heart with the rejected Samaritan woman at the well.
ï He was gentle and humble in heart with the hated tax collector Zacchaeus.
ï He was gentle and humble in heart with a Pharisee and Sanhedrin named Nicodemus.
ï He was gentle and humble in heart when healing a Roman Centurion’s servant, healing a Royal official’s son, healing a blind man, healing a paralyzed man.
ï He was gentle and humble in heart when traveling to different cities.
o Matthew 9:36, “He saw the crowds and felt compassion, because they were distressed and dejected.”
ï He was gentle and humble in heart when he wept for Jerusalem.
o Luke 19:41, “As he approached and saw the city, he wept for it.”)
ï He was gentle and humble in heart when he wept over the death of his friend Lazarus...
o John 11:35, “Jesus wept.”
When Jesus weeps for Jerusalem and for his friend he’s weeping over the pains sin and
death has caused them. What moved his heart to weep wasn’t his own pain, it was other people’s pains. What moved his heart to tears, was the tears of others. We have numerous examples of the gentle and humble heart of Christ being displayed by the life of Christ. Over and over again the most vivid portrait of Christ displayed in the 4 gospels, is the gentle and humble heart of Christ moving toward others to heal, help, teach, forgive, and embrace with grace. But that was Jesus back then, so how does this affect our lives today? Hebrews 13:8 states, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,” meaning the same gentle and humble Jesus back then, is the same gentle and humble Jesus we can experience today. He was gentle and humble to people back then, and he’ll be gentle and humble to us today. The same invitation he gave in Matthew 11 back then, is the same invitation he gives us today. It’s to rest our burdened souls in him.
Again vs. 28-30 states, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” A yoke is the heavy wooden harness on the shoulders of an ox or oxen, forcing them to carry or pull heavy farm equipment. The implication is we’re all yoked to something...We’re all yoked to something that’s burdening us, that’s heavy on our souls. What’s that yoke for you?...What’s that yoke, that thing you’re carrying that’s burdening your soul?...Some of you are yoked to your career, to success, to money...Some of you are yoked to unrealistic expectations in marriage, in parenting...Some of you are yoked to athletics, to education, to religion and religious perfection...We’re all yoked to something that’s burdening our souls, and it’s been driving us into the ground. Jesus is saying the way to rest your burdened soul is to put that yoke down and yoke yourself to him. It’s to stop yoking yourself to other things, living for other things, pursuing things that’ll never satisfy...and yoke yourself to him, live for him, pursue him knowing he’ll never drive you into the ground like the things you’re yoking your life to. He’ll never drive you into the ground, because he’s gentle and humble in heart. That’s how the heart of Christ can affect our lives, which is our 2ndquestion.
#2 How can the heart of Christ affect our daily lives? = It can affect our daily lives in numerous ways, and I’ll give you three examples. First it can reset your heart. It can reset your heart on things that are eternal instead of temporal. Most the burdens we’re carrying are because we’re short-sited and often forget the hopeful eternity awaiting us. We’re an instant gratification culture that gets burdened by Amazon taking longer than 2 days to ship things. We get burdened by our 5G taking longer than 10 seconds to load. We get burdened by things that aren’t really worth burdening ourselves with in the grand scheme of eternity. In our short sightedness we need to ask if the things burdening us are really worth it in the grand scheme of eternity? In Matthew 11 Jesus offers the cure to our short-sightedness, it’s to reset our hearts on his eternal promises. It’s to find rest for our burdened souls, by yoking our hearts to his gentle and humble heart.
So the heart of Christ can affect your life by 1st resetting your heart, and 2nd restoring your stumbling heart. Contextually this is one of the things Jesus is referring to when he talks about carrying a yoke, because Jewish religious leaders put heavy religious yokes on people’s lives. They gave people a ton of rules to follow to have a relationship with God. It’s why Jesus often called them hypocrites, it’s because they couldn’t even follow the rules they created. The reality is everybody’s a hypocrite, everybody at some point fails to live the things they believe. Nobody’s perfect except Jesus, and the good news of the gospel is he invites us to lay down the yoke of sin that’s preventing us from entering eternal heaven. He invites us to lay down the burden of our sinful imperfections, so he can place the yoke of his perfection on our shoulders and carry us to eternal heaven. Have you sinned recently, stumbled in your faith?...Have you stumbled with impatience towards your spouse and children?...Have you stumbled with your eyes when searching the internet?...Have you stumbled with anger, lust, pride, gossip, using harsh words that tear people down?...Have you been burdened by the fact that you’ve stumbled again, and you’re beating yourself up over it?...You don’t have to carry the yoke of guilt and shame anymore. Instead you can go to Jesus, ask him to forgive you, ask him to restore you and he’ll do it, because he’s gentle and humble in heart. When you sin Jesus isn’t taping his foot pointing a condemning finger at you, he’s opening his hand ready to restore you. Jesus doesn’t delight in pointing a condemning finger at you, he delights in restoring you. He doesn’t turn his back on you when you sin, he turns toward you when you sin, because he’s gentle and humble in heart. No matter how big you think your sin is, the gentle and humble heart of Christ is even bigger. He’s willing to restore your stumbling heart, because he’s gentle and humble in heart.
So the heart of Christ can 1st reset your heart, 2nd restore your stumbling heart, and 3rd lighten the burdens of your heart. Knowing Jesus is gentle and humble in heart should cause us to want to yoke our lives to him, because we know he’ll help carry our burdens instead of adding to our burdens. Jesus even says in vs 29-30 that his yoke is easier,lighter, more restful to our soul than the yokes we’re currently carrying. But we need to study the text carefully, because some of you are carrying such heavy burdens, it’s causing you to doubt what Jesus is saying. So study the text carefully, because Jesus never promises we won’t experience burdens if we follow him. He promises our burdens will be easier and lighter to carry with him instead of without him. I mean consider the alternative, consider life without Christ. If you’re a skeptic, how’s the yoke you’re trying to carry working out for you?...How’s the burdens of life you’re trying to carry by yourself working out for you?...If you’re a Christian, a believer, how much heavier would the yoke you’re carrying be without Christ in your life?...How much heavier would your burdens be without Christ, without the eternal hope and promise of heaven awaiting you?...Ask any true Christian if they still experience burdens and they’ll tell you yes. Ask them if they’d rather carry those burdens without Christ, and they’ll tell you no. It’s because they know how much heavier the yokes and burdens are without Christ, compared to with Christ. Jesus never promises we won’t face burdens, he promises our burdens will be easier and lighter to carry with him instead of without him. So the question isn’t are you carrying burdens, it’s are you carrying your burdens with or without Christ? Life is a much heavier burden to carry, without Christ.
Again vs. 28-30 states, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Do you want to know how to receive this promise for your life?...Do you want to know how to unwrap this promise, unwrap this gift, unwrap the heart of Christ for your life?...That’s our 3rd question.
#3 How can we unwrap the heart of Christ? = The key is in vs. 28 where Jesus says come to me. It’s an invitation to trust Jesus beyond historical intellectual facts. It’s an invitation to trust Jesus with your burdens, your life, your very soul. He wants you to find rest in him and the only requirement is to come to him. It’s to lay down the things you’re yoking your life to, and to yoke your life to him. The gentle and humble heart of Christ is only available for those who come to him, for those who yoke their lives to him. Jesus wants you to find rest in him, but he won’t force you. He’s gentle and humble in heart only to those who come to him, yoke their lives to him, cry out to him for help. In vs 16-24 just before he describes his heart to us, he tells the people in the cities that won’t repent, “Woe to you Chorazin!...Woe you Bethsaida!...Woe to you Capernaum, because you won’t be exalted to heaven, you’ll go down to hell.” Jesus being gentle and humble in heart doesn’t mean he’s a push over. He’s tough and tender. He’s a tough lion to his enemies, but a tender lamb to his family. He isn’t a pushover, because his compassionate heart doesn’t allow him to be. He can’t look at all the pain and suffering sin is causing our world and not be moved by it. It’s his gentle, humble, compassionate heart that caused him to enter into our world, die for our sins on the cross, and give us an invitation to enjoy eternal life in heaven with him, instead of eternal hell without him. If we reject his invitation that isn’t on him, it’s on us. You can’t blame the lifeguard for drowning, if you rejected the float the lifeguard tossed you. All of us are drowning in life, being buried by the yokes we’re carrying. But if you unwrap the gift of Christ...If you unwrap the heart of Christ by coming to him, laying your yokes down, and yoking your life to him...Jesus says if you do that, you’ll find rest for your weary burdened soul.
The Big Idea:
The big idea of the message is there’s rest for your burdens in life, in the gentle heart of Christ...His heart is just as gentle and humble today as it was in the past. Whatever your burdens, worries, doubts, insecurities, failures, and sins are, they’re never bigger than the heart of Christ. So come to him daily. Come to him, pray to him, study him, reflect on him and his teachings saying “Lord I need you, I can’t live life without you. I’ve tried, but life’s far heavier without you, and far greater with you. I give you my yoke today, and yoke my life to you.”
City Awakening whatever’s yoking you, choking you, burdening your soul today, it’s because you’re yoked to something else instead of Jesus. Lay that yoke down, yoke yourself to Christ, and rest your soul in him. He’s the only one who can lighten the yoke you’re carrying, and won’t ever drive you into the ground. Why? Because he’s gentle and lowly in heart.