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The Sovereign’s Gentle Call: Rest for the Restless Soul (Matthew 11:28–30) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reform Thinking. We have a serious stack of
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  sources to work through today. Essays, sermons.
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  Some really detailed theological examinations, and they all
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  center on just three verses in the Bible.
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  It's good to be here and yes 3 verses that I think almost
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  everyone listening has probably heard even if they've never set
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  foot inside a church. We.
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  Are talking about Matthew 11 verses 28 through 30.
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  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give
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  you rest. It's the, you know, the classic
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  greeting card verse. Oh for sure, it's on coffee
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  mugs, wooden plaques and people's hallways, right?
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  It feels like a warm blanket. It's so sentimental and
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  comforting. It is definitely comforting, but
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  I think our job today, based on these sources, is to rescue that
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  verse from being just sentimental.
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  Because when you look at the Greek text, the historical
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  context, and the Reformed theology behind it, you realize
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  the setting for this beautiful invitation is actually quite.
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  Terrifying. Terrifying that is.
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  That's not a word I usually associate with.
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  I will give you rest. I know, but the context is
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  everything, isn't it? Jesus isn't standing in a Meadow
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  of wildflowers when he says this.
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  Our sources point out that the chapters leading up to this
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  moment are just filled with tension, with judgement, with a
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  rising hostility against him. So to understand the sweetness
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  of the rest, you're saying we have to understand the severity
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  of the context first? We have to.
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  It makes the offer that much more stunning.
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  OK, let's unpack this. I think most of us, myself
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  included, we just skipped to the come to me part.
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  But you're saying the scene right before this is heavy?
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  What is happening? Well, just moments.
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  I mean, moments before Jesus opens his arms to the weary, he
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  is pronouncing woes. Woes as in like biblical curses?
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  Essentially, yes, Judgement. He's speaking to the cities of
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  Khorzin, Bethsaida and Capernaum.
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  And now these weren't hostile Pagan territories.
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  These were the towns where Jesus had performed most of his mighty
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  works. So they had front row seats.
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  The very front row they saw the blind seat, they saw the lame
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  walk. They had more light than any
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  other cities on earth. And yet the text says they did
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  not repent. They had all the evidence they
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  could possibly need, but they didn't change.
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  None. And the judgement Jesus
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  pronounces is it's just chilling.
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  He says it will be more tolerable on the day of
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  judgement for Sodom, for Tyre and for Sidon than for these
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  cities. Wow, so for 1st century Jewish
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  listener hearing that, that must have been shocking.
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  Incredibly shocking. Sodom was the archetype of
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  wickedness, the byword for depravity.
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  To say that Capernaum, a nice religious Jewish town, is in a
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  worse spiritual position than Sodom is a massive condemnation.
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  That puts a completely different spin on the atmosphere then.
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  This isn't a soft background music moment.
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  No, it's a courtroom scene. And it's not just the cities.
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  Our sources highlight that even John the Baptist is struggling
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  in this chapter. John the Baptist.
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  The Forerunner, Well, one and only.
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  He's in prison and he sends his own messengers to Jesus to ask
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  Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?
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  With John the Baptist, the guy who baptized Jesus, who saw the
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  dove descend, even he's having doubts.
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  That's the tension in the narrative.
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  John expected the Messiah to come swinging an axe of judgment
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  right away. He preached fire and brimstone.
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  And instead he's sitting in a prison cell.
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  He's in a cell and Jesus is going around healing people and
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  eating with sinners. The axe hasn't fallen the way
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  John thought it would. So you have this atmosphere of
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  judgement on the city's doubt from the forerunner and a
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  generation that Jesus calls childish and fickle.
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  So pretty much everyone is either offended or indifferent
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  or just plain confused. You've got it.
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  And it's right there, in that pressurized moment of rejection
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  that Jesus pivots to what one of our sources calls a theological
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  summit. A summit, OK.
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  Look at verses 25 through 27, right before our text.
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  Jesus prays, He says. I thank you, Father, Lord of
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  heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the
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  wise and understanding and revealed them to little
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  children. That's interesting phrasing.
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  He's thanking God for hiding the truth from some people.
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  This is where we get right into the heart of Reformed theology
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  and the doctrine of election. The sources show that Jesus
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  isn't frustrated that the wise, you know, the Pharisees, the
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  religious elites, aren't getting it.
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  He's acknowledging God's complete sovereignty in it.
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  So the invitation to come actually flows out of this, this
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  sovereign hiding and revealing. It does.
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  God hides the truth from the proud, from those who think they
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  have it all figured out. And He reveals it to the humble,
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  to the babes. So before he even offers the
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  rest, he establishes who's in charge.
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  He does more than that. He claims absolute exclusivity.
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  Verse 27 is what theologians call High Christology.
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  It's one of the highest claims he makes.
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  What does he say? He says all things have been
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  handed over to me by my father, and no one knows the Son except
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  the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone
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  to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
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  To whom the son chooses that's. That sounds very selective.
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  It is the paradox of divine sovereignty and the free offer
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  of the Gospel. He claims absolute authority to
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  reveal the Father. So they come to me.
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  That follows isn't a plea from a helpless teacher who's just
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  hoping someone will listen. It's a command.
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  It's a sovereign decree from the one who holds all authority, the
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  same one who has the right to judge.
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  Torzen is the only one who has the right to give rest to the
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  weary. So when he says come, it carries
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  the weight of the king of the universe behind it.
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  It is not just a nice suggestion.
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  Not at all. And that brings us to the
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  diagnosis. If the King is issuing this
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  royal summons, who is he summoning?
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  Who is the invitation for? The text says come to me all who
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  labor and are heavy laden. Right.
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  And I think our default reading of that is, you know, come if
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  you had a bad week at the office or come if you're just tired
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  from your commute. But the sources are arguing it's
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  much deeper than just physical tiredness.
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  Oh, much deeper. This is a spiritual diagnosis
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  and our sources do some really excellent work on the Greek
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  words here and it's illuminating.
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  He uses 2 descriptions for this group of people.
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  They are laboring and they are heavy laden.
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  OK, let's break those down. What does laboring mean in this
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  specific context? The Greek word is copitintus.
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  It's an active participle. It describes someone who is
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  toiling, working, striving to the point of complete
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  exhaustion. But specifically in Matthew's
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  Gospel, this refers to the works of the Law.
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  So it's the person who is actively trying to earn their
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  own righteousness. It's the hamster wheel, the
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  endless hamster wheel of self atonement.
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  Think of Cain in Genesis, offering the fruit of the
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  ground, his own hard work to God.
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  It's the exhaustion that comes from trying to be your own
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  savior. You're working, you're striving,
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  you're doing everything you can to prove you're good enough, but
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  you never, ever arrive. OK, so that's the active side of
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  it, the striving. What about Heavy Laden?
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  That word is pifertes menoy, and it's a passive participle.
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  It means a load has been placed on you by an outside force.
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  Ah, so it's not something you're doing, it's something being done
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  to you. Precisely.
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  Someone else is loading you down and in the 1st century, who
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  would that be? The religious leaders.
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  The scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus later accuses them of
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  tying up heavy burdens grievous to be born and laying them on
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  people's shoulders. This was the yoke of the law,
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  but not God's good law. It was their twisted, expanded
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  version of it, the Halaka. The thousands of man made rules.
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  Yes, the rules about how to wash your hands, how far you could
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  walk on the Sabbath, how to tithe your mint and your dill.
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  It was a system designed to crush the conscience.
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  So you've got this two pronged problem.
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  People are exhausting themselves trying to be good, which is the
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  laboring part, and at the same time they're being crushed by a
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  religious system that demands perfection but offers no help.
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  That's the heavy laden part. You've nailed it.
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  It is a state of complete spiritual bankruptcy.
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  Now this is where it gets really interesting for us today, right?
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  Because we don't have Pharisees following us around measuring
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  our spice racks. So does this diagnosis still
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  apply to people in the 21st century?
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  The sources argue that it absolutely does.
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  The spirit of the Pharisee, the dynamic of the yoke, it just
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  changes forms. It's still with us.
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  We just have new yokes. What does a modern yoke look
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  like? Well, one source brings up the
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  yoke of secular performance. This is the idea that your
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  entire worth as a human being is determined by your career path,
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  or your financial portfolio, or just your raw productivity.
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  You're laboring to prove that you matter.
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  Oh, that is everywhere. The hustle culture.
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  Or what about the social media aspect?
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  That's another one. A source calls it image
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  curation, the constant, exhausting work of maintaining A
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  flawless public appearance for an audience of strangers.
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  You're heavy laden with the need for approval, for likes, for
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  validation. And there's almost a kind of
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  secular moralism now, isn't there?
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  A new kind of law. A very heavy one.
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  Think about cancel culture. It's the form of legalism,
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  really. It demands absolute perfection
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  in speech and conduct, often based on these rapidly shifting
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  cultural standards. And if you mess up, there's
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  judgment. Heavy judgment, but there's very
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  little mechanism for grace or forgiveness.
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  It's a crushing yoke. It's all law, no grace.
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  That is a fascinating parallel. It's a law without a savior.
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  That's it. And the theological point here,
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  which is so critical, is that you cannot come to Christ if you
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  think you are. Well, this invitation actually
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  functions as a guardrail against Pelagianism.
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  The idea that we can just sort of choose God on our own, that
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  we're basically good people, right?
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  Jesus is saying no, you don't come to me when you're feeling
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  strong. You only come when you realize
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  you are crushed. You have to admit you're
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  bankrupt. You have to know that your own
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  deeds are, as Isaiah says, like filthy rags.
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  Only the spiritually bankrupt will respond to this call.
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  If you think you can handle the load yourself, if you think
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  you're strong enough, you will walk right past the rest giver.
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  So we have the terrifying context of judgment.
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  We have the diagnosis of total spiritual exhaustion and now,
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  finally, we get to the solution. Come to me.
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  Come to me. It is so strikingly simple.
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  Notice he doesn't say come to a new set of doctrines.
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  He doesn't say come to a five step plan for a better life.
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  He says come to me. It's an invitation to a person.
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  That distinction feels huge. It's relational, not
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  transactional. It's not about learning a new
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  set of rules first or cleaning yourself up before you come.
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  Not at all. And the sources point out these
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  amazing Old Testament connections.
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  When Jesus says this, he's echoing Exodus 33, where God
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  tells Moses, My presence will go with you and I will give you
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  rest. So when Jesus says I will give
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  you rest, he's speaking as if he is the presence of God.
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  He is claiming to be the embodiment of God's presence.
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  He's The Walking Tabernacle. And he's also picking up a
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  thread from Jeremiah 6.16. What's that one?
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  That's where Jeremiah says, stand by the roads and look and
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  ask for the ancient paths where the good way is, and walk in it
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  and find a rest for your souls. But in Jeremiah's day, the
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  people's response was we will not walk in.
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  It they rejected it. But now Jesus stands there as
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  the fulfillment of that ancient path.
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  He is claiming to be the true temple, the true Sabbath.
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  He is the place where God and man finally meet.
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  And then comes the promise. I will give you rest.
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  The sources make a big deal about this being a given rest.
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  What does that mean? This is critical for
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  understanding the whole passage. In verse 28 Jesus says, I will
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  give you rest. This is an objective declarative
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  statement. In Reformed theology.
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  We identify this as the doctrine of justification.
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  OK, let's define that for the listener justification.
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  It's the legal declaration by God the judge that you are
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  righteous in his sight. It's the silencing of the judges
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  gavel. It's the verdict of not guilty.
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  So when Jesus gives rest, he's talking about peace with God.
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  The war is over. That's it.
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  The alienation caused by our sin is removed.
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  It's a change in our legal status before the throne of
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  Heaven. It's a gift, not a wage.
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  We. Earn.
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  It is entirely a gift. It's Grace Carreras.
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  It deals with the root problem, which is not just that we're
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  tired, but that we are guilty. We are estranged from our
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  Creator. The given rest is Jesus saying,
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  I have taken the judgment of Sodom that you deserved.
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  You are now accepted. It is finished.
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  It is finished. It is the end, the cessation of
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  the attempt to establish your own righteousness.
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  You can finally stop trying to pay a bill that has already been
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  paid in full. That is, that's beautiful.
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  But, and here is the curveball, isn't it?
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  Right after saying I will give you rest, Jesus immediately says
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  take my yoke upon you. The great paradox.
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  Yes, it sounds like a total bait and switch.
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  Here's some rest. Now put on this heavy piece of
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  farming equipment and get back to work.
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  It does sound contradictory to our modern ears because we tend
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  to equate freedom with autonomy. You know, having no boss, no
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  rules, no master. But the sources explain this
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  through the concept of the Great Exchange.
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  The Great Exchange. What's that?
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  It's the recognition that human beings are created to be
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  heteronomous. That's a fancy word that just
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  means ruled by another. We are not designed to be
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  independent or autonomous. We are worshipping creatures.
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  We will serve something. So the choice isn't yoke versus
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  no yoke. That's the illusion.
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  The choice is always iron yoke versus wood yoke.
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  The iron yoke is the yoke of sin, of self, of the world's
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  crushing demands that we were just talking about.
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  That yoke will destroy you. And Jesus is offering an
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  exchange He. Says give me that iron yoke
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  that's killing you and take mine instead.
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  But he calls his yoke easy and his burden light.
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  How can a yoke, a symbol of hard labor and submission, be easy?
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  Well, the Greek word for easy is krostos, and it can mean easy.
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  But a better translation might be kind or benevolent or even
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  well fitting. Well fitting like a custom made
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  suit. Or, to stick with the
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  agricultural image, a yolk that has been hand carved to fit the
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  ox's neck perfectly so it doesn't chafe or cause sores.
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  Jesus is saying that his commands, his way of life,
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  actually fits our new nature. When you're born again, you're
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  given a new heart that actually loves God's law.
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  So it doesn't rub you the wrong way anymore.
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  It doesn't, and there's another, even bigger reason.
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  It's easy. And this goes back to the
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  doctrine of union with Christ. We do not pull the yoke alone.
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  We're not the only ox in the team.
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  That is the beauty of this image.
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  Christ is the stronger ox. We are yoked to him.
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  He is the one bearing the heavyweight of the burden,
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  specifically the burden of our Atonement and our perfection,
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  while we simply walk beside Him in discipleship.
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  So we are moving, we are working, but is doing the heavy
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  lifting. And this brings up what
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  theologians call the third use of the law.
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  The law is no longer a tool to try and get saved.
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  That's the legalistic use. Now, for the believer, the law
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  becomes a guide for our gratitude.
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  We obey not to get saved, but because we are saved.
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  I loved the note in one of our sources that contrasted this
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  with a book in the Apocrypha, the Book of Sirac.
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  Yes, Sirac 51. In that text, the
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  personification wisdom says put your neck under the yoke and let
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  your soul receive instruction. It sounds very similar.
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  But Jesus changes it. He changes it completely.
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  He doesn't just point to the abstract yoke of wisdom.
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  He claims to be the wisdom of God.
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  He says take my yoke, learn from me.
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  He is the master who gets in the yoke with you.
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  That is a massive difference. Now I want to circle back to
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  something we touched on. We talked about the given rest
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  in verse 28, but then verse 29 Jesus says and you will find
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  rest for your souls. Yes, the two rests.
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  This is a brilliant distinct that our sources really bring to
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  the forefront. They're not just repeating the
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  same idea twice. Not at all.
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  There is a beautiful pastoral logic here.
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  Verse 28 is the rest of justification I will give.
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  It's a gift that's your standing with God.
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  It happens in a moment. And verse 29.
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  Verse 29 is the rest of sanctification.
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  You will find that is the ongoing experiential peace you
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  discover as you walk with Him. OK.
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  Help us understand that difference a bit more.
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  Justification is about your position.
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  You are forgiven, accepted, declared righteous.
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  Sanctification is about your condition.
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  It is the lifelong process of becoming more like Christ and
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  actually experiencing that peace in your daily life.
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  Jesus says learn from me and then you will find rest.
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  So the finding happens as we walk with him, as we learn from
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  him. That's it.
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  It's a discovery. As you walk under his yoke, as
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  you learn to trust him with your finances, with your
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  relationships, with your deepest fears, you discover.
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  Oh, his way actually works. His way actually brings peace to
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  my soul. Why is it so important to keep
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  these two distinct? Why can't we just say Jesus
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  gives peace and, you know, leave it at that?
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  Because if you confuse them, you will fall into one of two very
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  dangerous stitches. The sources call them legalism
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  and antinomianism. The classic theological enemies.
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  They are. If you think you have to find
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  rest or work for it in order to be given rest, to be forgiven,
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  you become a legalist. You think you're earning God's
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  love by your obedience. Which puts you right back on
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  that hamster wheel we talked. About throws you right back on
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  it, but on the other side, if you think the given rest means
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  you don't need to take the yoke or learn from him, you become an
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  antinomian. Someone who's against the law.
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  Right. You think Grace is a license to
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  do whatever you want, That it doesn't matter how you live?
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  Which just leads to a chaotic, shipwrecked life.
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  It's not Restful at all. Not in the slightest.
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  The found rest comes from the learning process, he says.
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  Learn from me. Discipleship is a school cool.
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  We have to constantly unlearn our self-reliance and learn to
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  rely on Him. We labor, yes, but we do not
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  labor to purchase peace. We labor from a position of
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  peace. That is such a helpful
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  distinction. We work from rest, not for rest.
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  That is the key to the Christian life.
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  Now, all of this hinges on who we're yoked to, doesn't it?
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  If the Master is harsh, the yoke is going to be terrible no
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  matter how well it fits. But Jesus describes himself very
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  specifically here. He does, and it's really the
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  only time in the entire gospel where Jesus opens up his own
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  heart and tells us what he is like on the inside.
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  He says. For I am gentle and lowly in
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  heart. Gentle and lowly.
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  Let's talk about those words. The Greek word for gentle is
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  Prowse. It doesn't mean weak or
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  spineless. It was often used of a wild
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  horse that had been tamed and trained.
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  It is power under perfect control and lowly means
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  accessible. He's not high and lofty in a way
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  that pushes you down. He is near to the broken
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  hearted. The source contrasted this with
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  the Greek gods. Yes, the Greek gods were
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  characterized by apatheia, a kind of divine apathy.
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  They were believed to be unable to feel.
• 18:24
  They were distant, cold, moved by nothing.
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  Or think of the God of the Pharisees.
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  Rigid, exacting, keeping a detailed record of every wrong.
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  Jesus just shatters those images.
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  He does. He isn't the Sovereign King who
• 18:37
  spoke judgement on Capernaum, yet he is the most approachable,
• 18:41
  gentle and safe person in the universe.
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  He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.
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  And that has a massive implication for how we, in turn,
• 18:50
  treat other people. One of our sources includes a
• 18:53
  warning for pastors and leaders. A very necessary one, because if
• 18:56
  we are followers of the gentle and lowly one, then we have no
• 18:59
  business being harsh and arrogant.
• 19:01
  Right, The expert warns again against what he calls the
• 19:04
  Pharisaic instinct. What is that?
• 19:06
  It's the temptation that is very real for religious leaders or
• 19:10
  parents or anyone in authority to try and produce holiness in
• 19:14
  other people through pressure. Guilt trips?
• 19:16
  Shame. Do more, be better.
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  Binding heavy burdens that Christ himself has not
• 19:22
  commanded. If Jesus the Chief Shepherd is
• 19:24
  gentle with his sheep, then under shepherds, meaning pastors
• 19:27
  dare not be harsh with them, we should not be adding yolks that
• 19:31
  Jesus never intended for people to carry.
• 19:33
  That leads perfectly into the application side of things.
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  We live in a world that is obsessed with Wellness and
• 19:38
  self-care. Everyone is looking for rest,
• 19:41
  but the sources identify some counterfeit rests we need to
• 19:44
  watch out for. And this is where the rubber
• 19:46
  meets the road, because if you're weary, you will grab onto
• 19:49
  anything that looks like a life raft.
• 19:52
  One major counterfeit is what a source calls therapeutic deism,
• 19:56
  or the prosperity gospel. That's the idea that God just
• 20:00
  wants you to be happy, healthy and rich.
• 20:02
  Pretty much. It promises circumstantial ease.
• 20:05
  It says come to Jesus and you won't have financial problems
• 20:08
  anymore. Come to Jesus and your health
• 20:10
  will be perfect. That is a false rest.
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  Because Jesus promises rest for your soul, not necessarily a
• 20:16
  life free from all external troubles.
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  Not at all. If you sign up for Jesus
• 20:20
  expecting a stress free life, you're going to be crushed when
• 20:23
  the first trial comes. The yoke is light, but it is
• 20:26
  still a yoke. They're still suffering in this
• 20:28
  world, but you go through it with a settled soul.
• 20:30
  OK, what about mysticism? That was another one mentioned.
• 20:33
  That's the temptation to seek rest in private, subjective
• 20:37
  experiences, an inner voice, a feeling, a special revelation,
• 20:42
  rather than in the objective revealed Word of God.
• 20:45
  So it shifts the foundation from what Christ has done to what I'm
• 20:48
  feeling right now. And feelings are a very shaky
• 20:51
  foundation for lasting rest, aren't they?
• 20:53
  They come and go. And then there's pragmatism.
• 20:56
  I feel like this is a huge one for the modern church.
• 20:58
  It's massive. It's the temptation to rely on
• 21:01
  techniques, on programs, on getting the right lighting and
• 21:05
  the right music to manufacture a sense of peace or transcendence.
• 21:09
  It treats the church like a vendor of religious goods and
• 21:12
  the Sinner like a consumer. When true, rest comes through
• 21:15
  what the Reformed tradition calls the ordinary means of
• 21:18
  grace. The simple things, Word, prayer
• 21:20
  and sacrament, reading your Bible, praying with other
• 21:22
  believers, taking the Lord's Supper.
• 21:24
  They don't seem flashy, but that is how the well fitting yoke is
• 21:27
  applied to our lives week in and week out.
• 21:30
  So let's speak directly to the listener right now, to the
• 21:33
  person who is hearing this and thinking, I am that weary St.
• 21:38
  I believe in Jesus, but I'm just so burned out.
• 21:41
  What is the practical step for them today?
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  I think the first step is to diagnose the specific yoke
• 21:46
  you're carrying. If you are burned out, it is
• 21:49
  very likely you are carrying a load Jesus did not give you.
• 21:52
  So you have to identify the source of the exhaustion.
• 21:54
  You have to ask yourself, is it people pleasing?
• 21:57
  Am I exhausted because I am living for the approval of
• 22:00
  others? Is it perfectionism?
• 22:02
  Am I still trying to atone for my past mistakes by being
• 22:05
  perfect today? Is it worry?
• 22:07
  Am I carrying the burden of tomorrow which I can't control?
• 22:11
  Those are heavy, heavy yolks. They are, and the remedy is to
• 22:14
  consciously drop them. It sounds simple, but it's an
• 22:17
  act of repentance. It's coming to God and saying,
• 22:19
  Lord, I've done it again. I'm trying to be my own savior.
• 22:21
  I'm carrying this burden that you never asked me to carry.
• 22:24
  Drop the tools of self atonement.
• 22:26
  That's a great way to put it. And then you turn to those
• 22:30
  ordinary means we talked about. You go to church not to perform,
• 22:33
  but to be fed. You take the Lord's Supper and
• 22:36
  remember the given rest, that it's already done.
• 22:38
  And then you find rest in simple obedience.
• 22:42
  Obedience is rest. There's that paradox again.
• 22:45
  It is. Rest is found when you forgive
• 22:47
  your enemy because you're releasing the burden of
• 22:50
  bitterness. Rest is found when you love your
• 22:52
  spouse when you don't feel like it.
• 22:54
  Why? Because when you do these
• 22:56
  things, you are aligning your soul with God's design for
• 22:59
  reality. The friction of rebellion goes
• 23:01
  away. It's like swimming with the
• 23:03
  current instead of fighting against it.
• 23:04
  That's it. The world calls autonomy
• 23:06
  freedom, but it is actually swimming upstream against the
• 23:10
  current of God's grace and design submission to Christ is
• 23:13
  learning to swim with the river. This has been such a a heavy but
• 23:17
  good discussion. I feel like I will never look at
• 23:19
  that coffee mug versus the same way again.
• 23:21
  Definitely has more weight to it now, doesn't it?
• 23:23
  As we wrap up, I'd like to leave the listener with one final
• 23:26
  thought. We've talked about the
• 23:28
  judgement, the diagnosis, the two rests, the yoke.
• 23:32
  What is the one thing they should walk away with from this
• 23:34
  deep dive? I would say this, you are
• 23:37
  standing before 2 yokes. There is no third option.
• 23:41
  You cannot choose no yoke. The world's yoke looks like
• 23:44
  freedom. It says be yourself, invent your
• 23:46
  own truth. Answer to no one.
• 23:49
  But that yoke always ends in a grave.
• 23:52
  It will crush you under the impossible weight of self
• 23:55
  performance. And the other yoke.
• 23:57
  Christ's yoke looks like submission from the outside.
• 23:59
  It looks like giving up control. It looks like foolishness to the
• 24:02
  world. But it ends in a party.
• 24:04
  It ends in the wedding feast of the Lamb.
• 24:06
  The rest he offers is not just a nap on a Sunday afternoon.
• 24:10
  It is the eschatological piece of a soul that is finally and
• 24:13
  forever home. So the final call is simply
• 24:16
  come. Not to a plan, not to a
• 24:18
  philosophy, but to the person. Thank you for unpacking that
• 24:21
  with us today, and thank you, the listener, for joining us on
• 24:23
  this deep dive into reform thinking.
• 24:25
  We hope you find that rest. We'll see you next time.