A GOD-BREATHED WAY – TES JAHNIG
Scriptures:
Matthew 11: 25-29 NIV
Points:
1. Come to Me
2. Learn from Me
3. Rest with Me
Have you ever felt breathless?
Do you feel like you’re holding your breath, hoping and wishing someone or something would come and give you your breath back?
Jesus says: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11: 28-30 NIV
Here we have:
– Two Invitations (Come to Me, Learn from Me),
– and a Promise (Rest with Me)
that lead us towards a GOD-BREATHED WAY FOR A GOD-BREATHED LIFE.
1. Come to Me
“Come to Me” – the invitation is to a person, JESUS.
This portion of scripture is written in the MIDDLE VOICE and sounds like this when translated from Greek to English:
“Come to me all you who have wearied yourselves and have burdened yourselves and I WILL REST YOU.”
The bad news: The burden, extra weight, and heaviness we experience is primarily our own doing.
The good news: There is a solution for our weary and overburdened souls’ and His name is Jesus.
The question is not, “Am I yoked?”, but rather, “Who or what am I yoked to?”. All of us are yoked to something. And we all need to ask the question, whose yoke do we want to wear? We are overburdened because we are placing yokes upon our shoulders that don’t belong to us.
The yoke of human expectation.
The yoke of envy.
The yoke of comparison and competition.
The yoke of keeping up with the Jones’.
The yoke of success and climbing the ladder.
YOKE = A SYMBOL OF WORK
In biblical times, farmers placed yokes upon oxen to control their behaviour and maximise their work. They would yoke two oxen together to increase their effectiveness. A yoke is an influence. In Corinthians, Paul encourages believers to avoid being yoked to unbelievers because who we are yoked determines the direction of our lives.
WHAT IS THIS YOKE Jesus wears?
MATTHEW 11:25-27 – He reveals a mystery to us:the profound relationship between the Father and the Son. It is out of His connection and relationship with the Father that HE says “COME TO ME, and I WILL REST YOU”.
Jesus is YOKED to the Father.
HIS YOKE IS HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE FATHER.
His YOKE is easy | His BURDEN is light
THE YOKE OF JESUS calls for only one WAY, and that’s to PLEASE THE FATHER. Jesus yoke, HIS BURDEN is EASY and LIGHT because there is only one thing we can do to please God.
How do we please God? – TRUST HIM. The only thing that pleases God is faith.
2. Learn from Me
Jesus is the God-Breathed Word (John 1).
LOOK FOR JESUS:
– In the Old Testament – everything points towards Him and what He will accomplish.
– In the New Testament He reveals how He is a fulfilment of the law, of prophecies and promises.
It’s not just about reading scripture it’s about growing in our revelation of the Father.
We learn a God-breathed way through Jesus. THE WORD IS PROFITABLE (2 Timothy 3); it has an accumulative effect. So when we eat every day, we grow our SPIRIT MAN, and our heart eyes are opened, and our spiritual ears are in tune to HEAR HIS VOICE.
3. Rest with Me
Jesus doesn’t jusr say “I WILL GIVE YOU REST”, He says “I WILL REST YOU” (middle voice).
Rest is not a construct we take from Him and use outside of His presence.
Often, we believe that we can go on holiday and find true rest. That we must cease to work to find true rest. That we must stop all our activity to find true rest.
These things are great for physical rest, but you will not find rest for your soul in a holiday, a person, a place, or in nothingness. REST IS JESUS. JESUS IS REST.
To be rested is to enter into the reason for which we were created: COMMUNION with THE FATHER.
Jesus rests us by leading and connecting us to THE FATHER. He restores us to our original purpose, and in this, we find refreshment and wholeness.
“Come to me, all you who have overburdened yourselves and wearied yourselves with YOKES that don’t fit you. Take on my YOKE, which burdens you with only ONE THING—to trust the Father. This burden is easy and light. Learn from me—come alive in WHO I AM, and I WILL refresh you and fulfil you.”
Are you breathless, overwhelmed, burdened by yourself, by your circumstances, by the yoke you are wearing?
Come to Jesus; learn from Jesus; rest with Jesus.
Discussion Questions
1. . Come to Me:
– What are some of the “yokes” or burdens you find yourself carrying in your daily life?
– How do you think these yokes impact your relationship with Jesus?
– How does understanding Jesus’ yoke as His relationship with the Father change your perspective on following Him?
2. Learn from Me:
– How can you actively seek to learn from Jesus in your daily life?
– What practical steps can you take to grow in your understanding and revelation of the Father through Jesus?
3. Rest with Me:
– How do you currently seek rest in your life, and how effective do you find those methods?
– What does it mean to you that Jesus offers to “rest you” rather than just give you rest?
– How can you cultivate a deeper communion with the Father to experience true rest for your soul?
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for inviting us into a relationship with You. Help us to embrace Your yoke, learn from You, and find true rest in Your presence. Guide us as we seek to live God-breathed lives that reflect Your love and truth. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
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THE LINC COLLECTIVE 
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