PENTECOST
6
July
8-10, 2023
Pastor
Timothy J. Spaude
Text:
Matthew 11:25-30 (EHV)
“JESUS MAKES IT
EASY!”
1.
To
know the truth.
2.
To
bear life’s burdens.
Some people make it look easy. Like
taking off from the top of the key to dunk a basketball. Giannis makes it look
easy, but it is not easy. I’ve tried it. Doesn’t work. Not easy. Or
accomplished musicians. Watch an accomplished pianist work the ivories, hand
over hand, so fast you get lost in the motion, beautiful music. They make it
look easy. But it’s not easy. Then there are some folks who actually make it
easy. Try to do a home or auto fix. You try what makes sense. Impossible. But
ask a DIYer or auto mechanic who knows the tricks, go to youtube and watch
someone do the fix the right way and hey, that was easy. Our Lord Jesus comes
to us today in His word and makes some difficult things easy for us.
Like knowing the truth. People
struggle with that. At this time in history when so much information can easily
be spread so quickly and so far whether it is true or not, that’s a problem.
There’s news, fake news, real news with a spin. Everybody seems to have an
agenda. How do you know what’s true? It spills over into what’s really
important, God’s truth. So many different world religions, how do you know your
religion is the right one? So many different Christian churches, how do you
know your church’s teaching are correct? This is not new. At Jesus’ time there
were all kinds of religions. At Jesus’ time the Jewish pastors were teaching many
different things. So Jesus made it easy.
“At that time, Jesus continued, “I
praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things
from clever and learned people and have revealed them to little children. 26 Yes,
Father, because this was pleasing to you. 27 Everything
has been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wants to
reveal him.” Did you hear that? Jesus makes it easy to know the truth.
Refuse to act like clever and learned people and be like a child. He’s talking
about what God has revealed in the Bible. Specifically the truth that Jesus is
the way the truth and the life and no one, no one comes to the Father except
through Him. The clever and learned Pharisees read their Bibles and got so full
of their own smarts that they could not see the simple message of sinners in
need of a Savior . They didn’t know that truth when they were staring at Him!
But Simeon, Anna, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph, Zacchaeus, Mary
Magdalene, Mary and Martha and Lazarus did know they truth. They were childlike
in their faith and to them God reveals the truth. Not to the wise and learned.
Nothing new under the sun, friends.
The Devil can’t undo what Jesus has done for all so he tries to confuse people
on the truth. He works through people. So many mainline Christian denominations
have their wise and learned pastors reading their Bibles and saying Jesus is
one of many ways to heaven, not the only way, despite what the Bible plainly
says. And I’ve had all I can stand and I can’t stand no more of the fake
Lutheran church body, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. I am not
saying this is true of all their people but the church body is not Lutheran. It
is fake Lutheran. It does not hold to the Lutheran pillars of grace alone,
faith alone and Scripture alone. Don’t do this before you eat or after you eat
or you will lose your appetite or your lunch but look up the Sparkle Creed used
in a fake Lutheran church in Minnesota, you will see what I mean. So clever and
learned and blasphemous. Be on your guard when you hear people say, “We have
better scholarship now, the words don’t mean what they say. Marriage isn’t just
between a man and a woman. The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was not same sex sex
but a lack of hospitality toward strangers. Abortion is not specifically
prohibited so it is permitted. We are wiser, more clever and more learned, let
us tell you what God meant to say or should have said.” Blasphemy. Arrogance. As
though only 21st century Americans are the ones smart enough to really know what God has
revealed and all the rest of the people for the past 2000 years our holy loving
God let down. Brothers and sisters, you must reject every inroad of that kind
of thinking. It is Satan trying to obscure Bible truth so he can hide the Truth
of Jesus as only Savior. You young people here today, be strong. I know you are
getting bombarded by social media and pressured by your peers but you are the
ones people in our country need. You will keep proclaiming God’s truth so that
people can be saved and so you can continue to do that Jesus has made it easy
for you. Don’t listen to all the wise and clever Bible twisting arguments. Be a
child when you read and listen to Scripture. God says what He means and means
what He says. That’s easy. Jesus did that for you.
Jesus also makes it easy to bear
life’s burdens. And life has burdens. There are the burdens of sickness, disease
and body parts wearing down. The burdens of broken family relationships. The
burdens of deaths of our loved ones, especially when they are too young by our
standards. The burdens of hopes unfulfilled. The burdens of disappointments
that may last a lifetime. The burdens of real or perceived economic or
workplace unfairness. Everyone has those. And for those who know the truth there come
more burdens. For followers of Christ who take His words seriously and want to
live, talk, breathe in a way that honors Him there are the burdens of sin, the
frustrating inability to get it right no matter how hard you try that Paul
verbalized, the guilt, the shame. For followers of Christ who know God is all
powerful and in control there is the burden of impatience and perceived
unfairness from the hand of God. How long O Lord until you make things right?
How long until evil is revealed for what it is? How long until the desire of my
heart is fulfilled? Why do you let the wicked thrive and your people languish? Burdens!
Our Lord Jesus knows, cares and makes our burden bearing easy.
“Come
to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take
my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my
yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Now, don’t misunderstand me. The
burdens we carry in a sinful world are burdens. And Jesus makes no promise to
take them away. He promises to make bearing them easy by giving us His strength
to carry them. “Come to me,” says your Lord Jesus. This is an invitation to
bear burdens His way. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” For all of us
non ranchers, the yoke is a device that connects two animals. Normally one
strong and experienced with a younger weaker animal. By yoking them together
the younger, smaller learns from the older stronger and is often carried along
by the older’s strength. “Be yoked with me,” offers Jesus. “You don’t have to
fix these burdens, I will. You rest. I know you can’t get it right. I did that
for you. You have my righteousness and I’ve already taken your sin. You have
the Father’s unconditional love.” Look at me!” says Jesus. “There were times
the Father let me struggle, there were times, He made me wait, there was that
time at the end when He said No to what I asked. But everything had a plan and
a good purpose. And in the end the Father makes it right. So rest and wait,
you’ll see. Yes, I know your body hurts right now. I know it does not work
right. Just wait until you have your resurrection body! Come to me daily with
those problems and my strength will carry you. Let go of having it your way and
trust mine and those burdens will feel lighter and lighter until they are gone.
And they will be gone. All of them. Jesus’
words not only provide needed hope for this life but also have us looking
forward to that day when we will have perfect rest from every burden and every
struggle. Sin will be gone for good. We will not chafe because we don’t
understand God’s wise whys of dealing with us or others. Jesus will make
everything new! He keeps our eyes on our heavenly goal. And there again Jesus
makes something that is so difficult, it is impossible for people, easy. For when
it comes to getting to heaven it all depends on Him. His life, His death, His
resurrection, for you. Amen.
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