Elements of the Invitation
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2013 · 17 March 2013
The key to this section is found in verse 28, Jesus says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” This is one of many invitations given by our Lord. Christ came into the world to save sinners.
Let us look at another invitation just to give you more understanding of the spirit of our Lord. In Luke 14:15-24 Jesus gives us another remarkable parable, “15 Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
“16 Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, 17 and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.” The picture is of a man who gives a great feast and he sends out many invitations. The people apparently responded and said we will all come.
And then in verse 17 when everything was finally ready he sent the servant to say now is the time for you to come. You’ve already promised and said you’d come and now is the time. And in verse 18 it says that they all began to make excuses.” The first said, I have bought a piece of ground and I must go see it. Another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I have to test them. And another said, I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come.
Now, these are really just feeble excuses. And they are emblematic of Israel. Throughout history Israel had been invited and Israel said, “Oh, we will come. Just tell us when it is ready.” And when the Messiah came and said all right, it’s ready, they all began to make excuses for not coming.
Was the banquet canceled? No. Verse 21 says, “So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.”
What is Jesus saying to us? This last group of people could not come on their own. The poor people were intimidated by the wealth of the master. The maimed and the lame couldn’t get there unless they were brought in. And the blind couldn’t find it. This was a group that had to be ushered and carried in. They were the destitute and the outcasts and the hurting.
Then the servant said in verse 22-23, “Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room. 23 Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” And the ones who were originally invited, verse 24 says, will never taste of the supper. All who refuse the Lord’s invitation for salvation will be excluded from the Kingdom.
Now this is a picture that shows that the Lord first came to reach His people Israel, the ones who had originally been the invited guests. But when the time was ready they were not ready and made all these excuses. So He turned to the outcasts, the hurting people, the humble, the deprived and the desperate and they came.
The point of this parable is that God will call whoever will come. And those who come will be those who have no resources. Those who are brought are in because they can’t even get there on their own strength. The Lord gives an invitation and now is the time to respond.
And so, in Matthew 11:28 Jesus says, “Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will gave you rest.” Now, the key word, as we saw 2 weeks ago, is that word rest. It appears in verse 28 and 29 and the word rest means salvation. We learned that last time as we compared it with Hebrews 3 and 4.
Now, there are five elements in His call for salvation. The first two are foundational to the latter three. And we learned last time that the first element is humility. In Matthew 11:25, Jesus said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.” Babes are people that are needy with no resources, they can’t save themselves and they are dependent on God’s grace.
The second element is revelation. Verse 27: “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” Now, that is a verse that is profound and deep.
Basically it is a commentary on the word “revealed” in verse 25. It says that God has revealed the things of the Kingdom to babes. What Jesus is saying there is that all truth is wrapped up in the Father and the Son. And the only people who know it are the people to whom the Son reveals it.
Salvation comes when there is sovereign revelation from God. No man will know anything about Kingdom salvation unless Jesus reveals it to him. It is not available to the human mind. The first statement in verse 27 says: “All things are delivered to Me by My Father.” That statement means that Jesus is God. It is a statement of His deity.
That is the first time in the New Testament that Jesus said, “My Father.” He has said, “Father,” and He has said, “Our Father.” But now He is saying it in a way of uniqueness as God’s only begotten Son. In John 10:30 He said: “I and My Father are one.” Then the Jews took up stones to kill Him. They didn’t try to stone Him for saying He had one purpose with God, they attempted to kill Him for saying He was equal with God.
So, the first statement about His deity is that intimacy of My Father. The second one is the statement, “All things are delivered to Me.” What does “all things” mean? Matthew 28:18 sums it up this way, “All authority is given to Me in heaven and earth.” Everything pertaining to life is committed to Christ. Everything pertaining to the universe is under His sovereignty.
Now, having said that He goes on, “And no man knows the Son but the Father.” Only God can know God. We cannot understand God. Our puny brains can’t fathom it. All the religious leaders of that day thought they knew God. They thought they had it all figured out. But Jesus says no, only the Father knows Me.
And then look what He says, “Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son.” Not only does only the Father know Me, but only I know the Father. All the knowledge of divine truth is bound up in the Trinity; it is a mutual perception by the Father and the Son and of course the Holy Spirit.
And no man with his limited resources can ever perceive that knowledge. That is why philosophy is fruitless. That is why man-made religion is equally useless and vain because all revelation, all content, all truth about God and His Kingdom is locked up only in the Trinity.
How do we ever get it? The end of verse 27 gives us that, “the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” In other words, the only way we will ever know it is by a revelation by the Son, by revelation from God Himself. Salvation, then, becomes in its foundation that combination of a humble heart and an infinite God revealing Himself to that humble heart.
And there you have the two elements that are always balanced in any proper perspective in salvation; you have man’s part, a prepared and ready and open heart of humility and God’s sovereign, gracious revelation. Martin Luther said, “Here the bottom falls out of all merit, all powers and abilities of reason or the free will men dream of and it all counts nothing before God, Christ must do and must give everything.” end quote.
The third element is the word repentance as a key in verse 28. Note that that statement is immediately followed by an all inclusive statement, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden.” In John 6:37 the Lord said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” Yes, there is the sovereignty of God, but then there is also that open invitation, and how God harmonizes that is something that only He knows.
Look at the phrase, “all you who labor and are heavy laden.” What brings men to Christ is that they are working hard and bearing a burden from which they cannot get relief. It refers to the search for the truth, the search for relief from a sin-laden, guilt-ridden conscience, trying-to-earn-your-own-salvation. And “heavy laden” means fruitless striving after peace, contentment, joy, happiness and rest.
Come to Me, Jesus says, which means change your focus to Me, which is repentance. When you have run out of gas, turn from wherever you were going to Me, turn 180 degrees, that’s what repentance means. Unlike the Jewish Rabbis who were lost themselves and just piled on more burdens.
And in Matthew 23: 4 our Lord said about the scribes and Pharisees, “For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.” So Jesus says when you have somebody put so many rules on you and the sin and guilt has finally driven you to total exhaustion, you should come to Me and find rest.
In Acts 2:38 Peter says, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.” He preached again in Acts 3:19 and had the same message, “Repent therefore and be converted.” That is, turn around that your sins may be blotted out when the times of rest shall come.
In Acts 17:30 in that masterful sermon on Mars Hill, Paul says: “God commands all men everywhere to repent.” In chapter 20 as he decided to leave the elders at Miletus there from the church at Ephesus, he wanted to refresh in their minds what the ministry was and he said, “It is this, testifying to the Jews and the Greeks repentance toward God.” Turning around and turning toward God.
In 1 Thessalonians 1:9 he wrote: “We thank God that you have turned from idols to serve the living and true God.” In 2 Timothy 2:25 Paul says, “we are to instruct men so that God would give them repentance.” In Acts 5:31 it says: “The Lord has come to offer repentance.” In Luke 15 twice it says, “The angels of God rejoice over one sinner that repents.”
See, repentance is all part of salvation. And when Jesus blasted in fury at the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum back in verse 20, He did it because they did not repent. What does it mean to turn from sin? It means to realize the crushing load of sin and the impossibility of self effort and then turn to receive God’s grace.
The fourth element in the invitation of Jesus is faith. Jesus says in verse 28: When you turn, “Come unto Me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I’ll give you rest.” That’s the object. We turn from sin to Christ. We need to preach repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Acts 20:21 says, the object of our faith is not a creed, it is not a church, it is not a pastor or a preacher, it is not a set of rituals or a bunch of ceremonies, the object of our faith is Jesus Christ. Come unto Me. Believe in Me. Come is the equivalent of believe.
In John 6:35 Jesus said: “I am the bread of life, he that comes to Me shall never hunger, he that believes on Me shall never thirst.” Come means to believe. Believe in Me. Sometimes the Bible says it receive Me, sometimes it says - eat Me, or drink Me, or confess Me, or hear Me, but it all means to believe.
John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Real faith is trusting in Jesus even though times are tough, even though you are terribly disappointed, even though it seems that nothing is working out, even though the doctor tells you that you have cancer, even though your family hates you, even though you feel distraught because you have lost a loved one.
There’s a fifth element and that is submission. The text does not end at verse 28. Follow verse 29: “Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
“Take My yoke upon you,” means there is a submission involved in salvation. The phrase “yoke” refers to entering into submission to something. And Jesus says when you come to Me you must come with a submissive heart. The Jews knew the yoke was instruction. And then He adds this phrase: “And learn from Me,” it is a yoke of submission to His Lordship and to His teaching. It is a yoke that means obedience.
True salvation occurs when you in your desperation turn from sin to Christ with a willingness to have Him take control of your life daily. You cannot take Jesus as Savior and not as Lord and King, which means in all aspects of your life you give Him total control.
Now, you might say, “Isn’t salvation all of grace?” Of course, it’s all of grace, but in order for you to truly respond to His grace there has to be a brokenness and a humility in your heart which causes you to turn from your old life to Christ and the legitimacy of your turning is indicated by your willingness to submit and obey.
So what does it mean to be under the yoke of Christ? It is a yoke in the spiritual dimension. The yoke that He makes is easy and the burden He gives is light. Why? Because He is meek and lowly, He does not desire to oppress us. He is gentle. He is tender. And He gives us something we can carry.
And the proof of your salvation is in how you live your life daily. Yes, we are all continuously learning what it means to be more like Christ. And how you live is based on what you know and have learned so far from Him, right? But He gives us only what we are capable of doing and He is growing us in the process.
And He knows what is best for us, even if we do not like it at that moment. Only later on can we see how God uses everything to make us stronger. And we might complain and not see the benefit, but when we learn to trust Him we will come to know Him better and better and we will see His wisdom in all that we have to experience.
And when we are humble and we react trustingly to every new revelation that He gives us and we continue to repent from our sins and believe that this is for our own good and submit to Him obediently, He will give us true rest. Let us pray.