My Yoke is Easy

From the time Jesus began his ministry until the day he died on the cross the vast majority of people who came to Jesus stayed with him only for a short while. Now they were attracted to him by his signs of the kingdom. They came for healing.

They came for bread. They came for forgiveness. They came for hope.

And Jesus had an abundance of all these things. And his arms were open and welcome and his hands were generous in giving. But there was something else about Jesus which scared people to death.

After they got their healing, after they had their taste of glory, sooner or later Jesus would require a response. I've shown you the kingdom with these signs. Now, why don't you come in? Why don't you take a step of faith? Commit yourself to me.

And their faces would grow sad. And most of them would turn and walk away. The rich young ruler just could not bring himself to part with all his wealth and look upon Jesus as his richest.

The people who ate his his bread just couldn't stomach the idea of eating his flesh and drinking his blood, joining themselves to him, committing themselves. And as they walked away, Jesus would shake his head in amazement. Because he wasn't putting on them a heavy burden.

In fact, he was offering them a lighter yoke, a heavy, a lighter burden than any burden they were ever carrying and certainly than the burdens that they were carrying at that moment. And he understood. And all he wanted to make it clear, if they would only listen to him, that if they took his light yoke, all the other burdens that were weighing them down.

Now, this issue is discussed very, very carefully and very clearly in the 11th chapter of Matthew. And we can, at our own convenience, study that chapter alone and look at it and think about it and pray over it. But some of the highlights.

The 11th chapter of Matthew begins with a passage that Jim read this morning. With John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament, the Old Covenant prophets, sending a message from his prison cell that he's not at all happy with the way Jesus is doing his work. We read from Matthew 11, 2. Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, to Jesus, Are you he who is to come or should we look for another? And Jesus answered them, Go tell John what you hear and see.

The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dead hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me. As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John.

What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What did you go out to see? To see a man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, those who wear soft raiment are in king's houses. Why then did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.

Truly I say to you, among those born of women, there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet, he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. Because John refuses to give me the one commitment I'm asking for, refuses to give me the commitment of faith.

He's unwilling to trust me. And the least in the kingdom of God, the least member of the kingdom of God has given me that. Gives me faith, gives me trust, commits himself, herself, to me.

And then he goes on to say, From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven allowed violence. And men of violence take it by force, for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. In other words, to get into the kingdom up to this point, up to now, the only way to get in is to scale the wall.

You're going to climb up over the wall. You have to be aggressive, violent, pushy, tenacious, tough, like all the prophets, including John. But now, I've come and I've opened the door.

And all you have to do is walk through the door. And even John is afraid to do that. The door of commitment to me.

But there was a handful of people who did it. They walked through that door. They committed themselves in faith to Jesus.

And these are the ones, he says, who are having their eyes open to glory. These are the new covenant prophets. And with these, we're going to harvest the earth.

And so we read on in Matthew 11 and verse 25. At that time, Jesus declared, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise in understanding, and revealed them to babes. Yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will.

See, the difference between the people who stick with Jesus and the people who gradually drift away, is this commitment of faith. And this commitment of faith to Jesus is made always by those who are the babes. I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to the babes.

These babes, because these babes, they aren't afraid to trust me. These ones who have a childlike heart, they're not afraid to commit themselves to me. And then Jesus goes on to insist that this commitment of faith to him is the easiest yoke there is to carry.

Far easier than any yoke they carried before. Much lighter than any burden they've ever known. And so the chapter ends with the familiar words, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden under all these other burdens you carry, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, my yoke. And learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart. You'll find rest for your soul, for my yoke is easy, my burden is light.

My yoke is easy. My yoke is easy. Why does Jesus find it so necessary to emphasize, my yoke is easy? Because from the outside it looks hard, difficult, frightening.

This is why from the earliest days false prophets have always come along offering to people who are seeking Jesus a discipleship without a yoke. And to this day millions of people are chasing after a discipleship without a yoke, a shortcut. Because everybody gets this idea that the yoke is hard.

We have experienced that here over the years, right down to today. Multitudes of people have gone through here. We probably could fill Cobo Hall with all the people who have been around here in the last ten years.

They love the idea of coming to Jesus and they get scared by the idea of being put under that yoke. And even today we, each of us in some way, and some of us in a very strong way, linger around the door of the kingdom, back away a little far enough so that he can't slip the yoke over me when I'm not looking. So the word of the Lord to us today is, to this assembly today is, my yoke is easy.

My yoke is easy. That's not a trick. That's true.

Take my yoke upon you and you'll find it so. The yoke you carry down are hard. The yoke of guilt, the yoke of anger, the yoke of vanity, the yoke of fear, the yoke of despair.

Those are the yokes that crush you and will destroy you. And every one of those yokes will just evaporate, every one of them will disintegrate when you get under the yoke with me. My yoke is easy.

And my yoke will bring you life, will raise you from the dead, will open your eyes and give you vision. And best of all, getting under that yoke with me, you will find... Do you have rest for your soul right now? So what is this easy yoke and how do you get under it? What does he mean? The easy yoke is three clear simple things. The easy yoke is first of all to commit ourselves in faith to Christ's person, to Jesus himself.

Second, to commit ourselves in faith to Christ's body on earth. And third, to commit ourselves in faith to Christ's... The easy yoke, first of all, is to commit ourselves in faith to Christ's person. He says, come to me, but don't just come and look.

Come under my yoke. Commit yourself. Don't be afraid.

Link yourself to me. Share in my heart, share in my work, share in the vision I want to give you. Join me.

Me, he says. And we look at him and we say to ourselves, commit myself to the Lamb of God who hangs on that cross. I don't know if I can handle that.

I'm not sure if I can... if I'm strong enough to take the weight of that. I'm not quite certain that if I start I'll be able to keep going. Because from the outside the yoke looks heavy and it's frightening and it's threatening to us.

But once we get under it, once we get on the inside, take that step of faith, once we say, Lord, okay, I got nowhere else to go, so here I am. I commit myself to you, body, soul, and spirit. I join myself to you.

To lead me, to guide me, to direct me. The instant we do that, we discover, indeed, that yoke is life. Not death, not heaviness.

Joy! Unspeakable joy. And rest for our souls such as we've never had. A commitment that has brought life to us as no commitment on this earth ever has before.

So... So commit yourself again today, he says to us. Come on to this yoke afresh today. Just like in a marriage, if it's going to work, this couple has to keep committing themselves to each other.

How much more in this relationship with Jesus we commit ourselves to him afresh all the time? And he says, as you do, all the other yokes you've been carrying, the yoke, the easy yoke, is secondly to commit ourselves in faith to Christ's body on earth. Ephesians 4.1. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you've been called with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.

One body, one spirit. Commit yourself to it. And commit yourself not just to the body of Christ in general, but to the specific assembly of believers where you believe God has put you.

Commit yourself. To these specific people. And again, we get scared.

We say, wait a minute. Those people? They're strange. They're weird.

I don't know if I can trust them. I don't know if they're dependable. That's how it looks from the outside, always.

Doesn't matter where. But when we get inside, when we make the commitment and we say, all right, these are my brothers and sisters, and I commit myself that these men and women, real human beings, we discover that they are indeed. These people are our comfort.

They are life. These are our friends in God. Even when we disagree, even when we argue, even when we have hard disagreements, there is life when I commit myself to these people.

You didn't pick your parents. And you didn't pick your children. And you didn't pick your blood brother and sister, whether you got what you got.

And in an even more wonderful and mysterious way, we didn't pick each other. God picked us. He put us together.

Now commit yourself. And when we do, we find tremendous comfort. And then this hour becomes the glory hour of the week.

Not a duty, but the glory hour. Essential as it is for our survival, it becomes joy. Joy.

And it brings life to us. More and more and more life, the more we make that commitment and practice it. His yoke is easy.

It's an easy yoke. Don't make it hard. It's easy.

Thirdly, the easy yoke is to commit ourselves in faith to Christ's commission. See, and here very often in American Christendom, you stop there and you say, will you take care of this third one that you send a missionary someplace? Now, but Christ's commission is, go make disciples. Harvest.

Go out there and find those forgotten ones and bring them to the banquet hall. Go get those lost sheep of the house of Israel and bring them to the shepherd. And that's a direct command to every follower of Jesus.

And at first we say, that's not for me. I'll have to just send another missionary to take my yoke is easy. And when we do it, when we start right where we are in our neighborhoods, among our relatives, the places where we work, when we in fact open our mouths and begin looking for those marginals and those forgotten ones and those lost ones, those wounded ones, and invite them to the banquet table, we discover it's easy as pie.

It is. Not only that, amen, there's a wind blowing at your back and the wind blowing at your back is the Holy Spirit. And pretty soon you see miracles happening.

And you have the joy of seeing the Lord working under that yoke that joins you with him working together with you. His yoke is easy. Don't make it hard.

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden under those burdens that you're making. And I'll give you rest. Take my yoke and learn from me.

Your yoke is going to crush you. That yoke of guilt, that yoke of vain ambition, that yoke of anger, that yoke of fear, and on and on. But if you get under my yoke, those yokes will just, it's the yoke of faith.

Trust me. Trust me. Give yourself to me.

Commit yourself to me now. Get under this yoke with me afresh now. And you will find rest for your soul.

For my yoke is easy and my burden Let's just think about it for a minute and let the spirit of God speak to our hearts and stop.