The Yoke of Christ

Matthew 11:28-30 - Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Read verse 25-27 to explain that every person can come to Christ because Christ has all the power of heaven on earth.  Even though Christ is now ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of his father, he still has all power on this earth.  Satan can do nothing, except it were given to him of the Father, and approved by Jesus Christ.

God has revealed his “things” to babes, not to the wise and prudent.  This is a great blessing.  I Corinthians 1:26-29 states that God has not called many wise men, not many mighty men, not many noble, but has called foolish things, weak things, base things, and things which are despised.  Take heart – if you fit into one of these categories, God is calling you.

There is a yoke that every person must bear, whether they are saved or lost, whether they follow Christ or not.  The fact is that this world is full of troubles and trials and tribulations.  You can either try to work out the troubles by yourself, or you can bring them to God, and let Him work them out.

There are three points to this message:

1.       Come

2.       Take

3.       Learn

I.   You must come to Christ before you can get any rest.  Christ will not force you to come.  He will leave the choice to you.

A.     Some “comes” of the Bible:

1.       Isaiah 45:22 – “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”

2.       Isaiah 55:1-3 – “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2  Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. 3  Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”

3.       John 6:37 – “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

4.       John 7:37 – “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.”

5.       Rev. 22:17 – “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

B.     Who can come?

1.       Our text – “All.”

2.       Matthew 23:4 – The Pharisees bind heavy burdens on men, but God relieves those heavy burdens.

C.     Examples of people who came to Christ.

1.       Matthew 8:2-4 – A leper came to Jesus to be healed.

a.       He was tired of his disease, how it ravaged his body, and was slowly killing him.

b.       IF he had not come, he would not have been healed.

c.       According to Levitical law, a leper was supposed to avoid every person, cross the street (as it were) and cry “Unclean, unclean” so healthy people would avoid them.

d.       This leper broke this Levitical law, but this was no sin, as he came to Jesus.

e.       There is never a sin when a sinner comes to Jesus.

2.       Matthew 20:29-34 – These two blind men cried out for Jesus, even though they were rebuked by the multitude.

a.       The world will mock you when you cry out to Jesus, but remember the world is not the one laboring with a heavy burden.

b.       Jesus will give you rest, the world will not give you rest.

II.   You must take the yoke of Christ upon you, He will not force it upon you.

A.     The yoke that fits upon the oxen is the example.

1.       The yoke is made to fit each individual oxen, just as the work of every person is individualized.

2.       You must yield yourself to receive the yoke of Christ.

3.       Without this yoke, you will not be able to pull your weight – do any profitable work for Christ.

III.   There is a learning about Jesus.

A.     Satan knows there is a mental knowledge that goes along with being faithful to God, that is why he puts so many more things in our minds than we need.

1.       We are going to learn something while we go through life – either for the good or for the bad.

a.       Satan gives us television to watch so we don’t have time to read and mediate on His Word.

b.       Satan gives us material things (which can be blessings), but when they break, we must work on them, therefore we don’t have as much time to devote to God.

c.       Satan gives us jobs, which we need, but we can put jobs ahead of Jesus Christ.

d.       Satan gives us family trouble, that we think we need to get straightened out before we begin to think about Jesus.

2.       Satan wants us to believe having to mentally struggle to learn about God is wrong, that it ought to be spiritual.

B.     Learning about Jesus involves a mental struggle to understand the teachings (doctrines) of God.

1.       God does not stick a funnel in our heads and pour the knowledge in.

2.       1 John 2:27  teaches, “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”

IV.   How can the yoke of Christ be easy and the burden light?

A.     Light affliction – II Cor. 4:17 – Any burden will be light in comparison to eternity.

1.       Christ doesn’t instantly load us down with a heavy yoke, but starts out with a light load, watches how that yoke wears on us, then whittles down the wooden yoke in the sore spot until the yoke doesn’t make a sore.

2.       Christ gently forms each yoke to fit the individual person.

a.       The truth is that every oxen is different from every other oxen.

b.       A single yoke won’t fit every oxen, but each yoke must be tailored to fit that particular oxen.

c.       This is why there are differences in people and the yoke each person wears, but the result is the same.

d.       II Corinthians 12:7-10 – Paul asked God three times for the thorn in his flesh to be removed, but it wasn’t removed.  God gave him grace to endure.

e.       Philippians 4:6 – We must learn to pray and thank God for each and every affliction that He puts on us, knowing that each affliction is for our good and His glory.  These afflictions teaches us in a very practical way that God’s way is the best way for us.

B.     There is a gradual building up of responsibilities as Christ forms the yoke to fit us better and better.  Our yieldedness to circumstances and situations in this life is what God uses to cause the yoke to be fitted to us.