By nature, men and women act self-reliant, often burdened by the futility of trying to make sense of their existence or attempting to please God through self-effort. Jesus invites all sinners to come and find rest in Him. While His call is universal, it’s also very personal. Those who accept His invitation are expected to learn from Him.
Continuing his miniseries on Matthew 11:28–30 and encouraging us to become Christ’s pupils, Alistair Begg considers who Jesus is, what He does for believers, and what He’s like as a teacher.
Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
So we come now for the third time to what is referred to—this little passage—as “comfortable words” in the prayer book. This is, of course, familiar territory. It is as well-known as many a passage in the Bible. It is clear, it is unmistakable, it is universal in its appeal, and it is clearly personal in its application.
It can be read, as I read it, in a matter of seconds. It is an invitation that stands alone and by itself. And what we’ve chosen to do by taking focus on these individual verbs has broken it up in a way that I hope will not cause us to miss the larger point that is being made. We began by looking at the straightforward invitation, “Come to me,” straightforward, simple, clear; and then “Take my yoke upon you,” from invitation to obligation; and now, this morning, to “learn from me,” which, if you like, we can say is education; and then, all being well, God willing, next Sunday, “find rest for your souls”—if you like, the ultimate transformation.
Now, I want to make sure that folks who have not been with us don’t feel left behind. And there is a sense in which all of these verbs, of course, fold into this one great invitation. It’s important, I think, to at least make this point: that the taking and the learning and, ultimately, the finding, these things are actually different from the coming. It’s not that the obligation and the learning, the discipleship, are prerequisites for coming. Rather, having come to Jesus, having acknowledged the very straightforward invitation that has been given, then evidence of the fact that we have responded to the invitation will be seen not least of all in our obeying His Word and in learning of Him.
Watch, read, or listen to “Learn from Me”