Tag Archives: learn from me

YOKED WITH JESUS

Christian Life, ,

Matthew11:28-30 NLT
[28] “Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

For us who live in the age of mechanisation, the idea of ploughing with oxen in a yoke is unfamiliar except, of course, to those who function in simpler cultures.

How does a young ox learn to accept a yoke? He is paired with an older, more experienced ox who patiently teaches him by example how to plough in harmony with his partner in the yoke.

If the young ox resists the discipline of the yoke, he will find that the yoke has chafed him and caused raw spots that hurt as he pulls the plough. Only when he learns to keep in step with his mentor will he find the yoke easy and comfortable. The ploughman does not adjust the yoke to suit the ox. The ox must surrender to the shape of the yoke.

After much patience, trial and error, the young ox eventually learns to buckle down to authority and to pull the plough in step with his partner. Once the yoke has done its work, the young ox is refashioned into a seasoned ox who knows and understands what the ploughman expects of him.

What a marvellous picture of our journey through life yoked to our great mentor, Jesus, the “OLD OX” in the yoke.

Jesus has fashioned a yoke for His followers that is both easy and light, a way of life God intended for us from the beginning. Obedience to His yoke, though contrary to the world’s ways, and difficult to do at times, brings peace of mind, heart, and conscience.

He gave His twelve apostles the authority, through the Holy Spirit, to understand and teach His yoke to all who come after them. God’s prophetic revelation of the nature and work of His Messiah in the Old Testament Scriptures, formed the foundation of those who wrote the New Testament. The apostles perfectly matched Jesus with the Old Testament blueprint. They recognised that He fitted the image and yoke of the one about whom God foretold.

It was specifically His yoke, His character and ways, that matched the God of the Old Testament, and that alerted the apostles to Jesus’ true identity. It was the Father’s love, vividly replicated in Jesus’ love for all people, that revealed the true nature of God, and set Jesus apart from all other people.

How best can we describe Jesus’ yoke? How can we know the nature of that yoke? We gaze at Him. Everything He said and did is a revelation of His yoke, best described in two words, mercy and grace.

The Hebrew word, “chesed”, untranslatable by one word in English, sums up Jesus’ yoke perfectly. The meaning of our English word, “love”, has been so corrupted by sin that it falls far short of its true meaning. However…

“Chesed” is God’s love, in all its dimensions, for His people in a covenant relationship, and expressed in His mercy and grace. Mercy rescued us from a well-deserved eternity in hell and grace provides everything we need to live godly lives in an ungodly world. Jesus lived this yoke in His dealings with all people and He requires that all who would follow Him, do the same.

Jesus intends for us to wear His yoke by believing who He is, submitting to His absolute authority, and treating others as He treats us. Through us, our words and actions, He replaces the yokes of bondage to which people are subject by what they believe, and how they behave, with His yoke of freedom….from every thought and action that produce guilt, fear, and shame.

Belief systems and their practices take many forms. Religious yokes tie their devotees to legalistic bondage by observing rules and rituals of do’s and don’ts in order to please their god or gods. Denominational yokes impose the restrictions of specific interpretations of Scripture on their followers. Then there are cultural yokes, political yokes, and even family tradition yokes which all result in bondage of some kind or another. People are born into or forced under these restrictions that eventually shape conscience and character.

Jesus swept all these false yokes aside by offering a way of life that frees us from the inward bondage these yokes, or failure to observe the requirements of these yokes, incurs.

I think that the yokes humans have invented are many ways to deal with sin, or what we consider to be “sin” in the eyes of whatever authority under which we fall. So, we must observe all the provisions and restrictions of our particular yoke to have inward peace. However, it doesn’t work that way. Whatever we do in the form of behaviour can never change our hearts.

Jesus insisted that sin – everything we are, say, and do contrary to God – comes from the heart and affects our behaviour, not the other way around. Before we can enjoy the inward peace (rest) His yoke provides, we must first embrace His teaching, i.e., exchange whatever we believe for the truth.

John 8:31-32 NLT
[31] “Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. [32] And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Now, that’s a revolutionary statement if it is true! Jesus declared that, if we ditch every other yoke, and believe and live by His teaching, we will enjoy an inward rest no other yoke promises or provides. No guilt, shame, or fear!

Is this true? Ask the millions, down the generations, who have believed and done what Jesus instructed. There is no other “freedom” better than the freedom Jesus offers to those who believe in Him. This freedom includes freedom from worry and anxiety, freedom from the fear of punishment, of the future, and even of death, and the freedom from the tyranny of conscience when we invade other people’s lives with our intrusions.

The reality is that those who choose to wear Jesus’ yoke without altering it in any way, enjoy a life of inward rest despite the chaos of outward circumstances. This yoke includes absolute confidence in the unconditional love of a perfect Father, and a life of unselfish service to others out of love for Jesus. He set the standard by His earthly life and we watch and follow Him through the influence of His Spirit in us.

The New Testament fleshes out His yoke so that we have every provision for living under His authority and enjoying the rest He promised.

It’s up to us to receive by faith and live by grace under the yoke that frees us from all other yokes.

Galatians 5:1 NIV
[1] “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

LEARN FROM ME

Christian Life, ,

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 (Matt. 11:28-30).

LEARN FROM ME

These are some of simplest, most profound and most misunderstood of Jesus’ words. To understand them from His perspective and according to His intention, we must go back in time to first century Israel. 

Only those who live under an oppressive religious system would understand what it was like to be under the yoke of Judaism in Jesus’ day. Perhaps modern-day orthodox Jews, for example, might understand what it felt like to have every action regulated by a religious prescription and all their activities hemmed in by rituals and then, on top of that, to have religious “police” watching every move. It was like have a religious KGB everywhere.

Jesus called His people, not simply those who bore the burdens of everyday life in Israel but those who were tired of carrying the burden of trying to please God by doing the right thing when the “right thing” was a burden too heavy to carry, rest. They had long ago lost the meaning of being in a covenant relationship with the God who loved them and who taught them how to live so that they could enjoy fellowship with Him and with their fellow Jews.

Their great religious teachers had, over the centuries, added interpretations and laws to protect them from “misunderstanding” and “breaking” God’s laws until the whole religious system was top heavy with petty rules which completely obscured the way of life God intended. He wanted them to show the nations around them that the God they worshipped was compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness. Instead, they groaned under the oppressive rules they had to observe as well as the Roman government’s oppressive occupation of their beloved land.

Jesus addressed those who were thoroughly sick of their religion. He offered them His “yoke” – a new way to understand what God meant by His teachings in the Torah, not burdensome rules but a way of life that would set them free from the burden of their fear, guilt and shame. To wear a rabbi’s yoke meant to learn from him by association as a young, inexperienced ox would learn to pull a plough by being yoked with an older, trained and experienced ox.

The second step in becoming and being a disciple of Jesus is to accept Jesus’ yoke, to believe and put His teachings into practice by being in close association with Him, listening, observing learning and doing what He taught.

To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ (John 8:31-32)

Firstly, we must ask: Free from what? Of course, Jesus came to set us free from the burden of sin. He took the punishment for our sin to set us free from our guilt and from the power that sin has over us. He gave us His Holy Spirit to live within us as His personal presence with us. The Holy Spirit continually represents and reveals Jesus to us, reminding us of His teaching, empowering and teaching us how to live.

Secondly, Jesus’ yoke replaces all other yokes; religious yokes, denominational yokes, political yokes, or whatever association we have with any system that brings us into bondage. That does not mean that we are free to do as we please. The freedom Jesus offers us is freedom from the worst kind of slavery – slavery to ourselves and the ravages of selfish and greedy living.

Did you notice how He summed up His own disposition – “gentle and humble in heart”? Living selfishly makes us slaves to ourselves and alienates us from the people around us. When we take Jesus’ yoke and learn to live like He did, gentle and humble, compassionate and merciful, our hearts will be at rest as we are no longer tormented by the pangs of conscience and experience the peace of God that guards our hearts and minds.

Life is a journey. When we stubbornly refuse to follow God’s way, we get lost in the wilderness of the world’s ways and we will perish there without the nourishment and water of God’s Word. Jesus calls us to follow Him. He knows where He is going and He knows where He will take   us if we follow Him. He said that He is the way to the Father. If we accept His yoke, His way of living – generously and unselfishly – we will experience His rest, living without guilt or fear in the confidence of the perfect love of the Father.

However, there is a warning I must issue at this stage. Jesus’ yoke demands an all-or-nothing commitment to Him. No disciple was ever permitted to pick and choose what he would follow and what he would ignore. When he accepted a rabbi’s yoke, he accepted it in total. He could not change or omit any part of it. If he did, he was immediately disqualified.

Do you remember Jesus’ saying?

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Matt. 16:24).

Whoever does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:27).

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Learn From Me

Christian Life, , ,

LEARN FROM ME

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 (Matt. 11:28-30).

These are some of simplest, most profound and most misunderstood of Jesus’ words. To understand them from His perspective and according to His intention, we must go back in time to first century Israel.

Only those who live under an oppressive religious system would understand what it was like to be under the yoke of Judaism in Jesus’ day. Perhaps modern-day orthodox Jews, for example, might understand what it felt like to have every action regulated by a religious prescription and all their activities hemmed in by rituals and then, on top of that, to have religious “police” watching every move. It was like have a religious KGB everywhere.

Jesus called His people, not simply those who bore the burdens of everyday life in Israel but those who were tired of carrying the burden of trying to please God by doing the right thing when the “right thing” was a burden too heavy to carry, rest. They had long ago lost the meaning of being in a covenant relationship with the God who loved them and who taught them how to live so that they could enjoy fellowship with Him and with their fellow Jews.

Their great religious teachers had, over the centuries, added interpretations and laws to protect them from “misunderstanding” and “breaking” God’s laws until the whole religious system was top-heavy with petty rules which completely obscured the way of life God intended. He wanted them to show the nations around them that the God they worshipped was compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness. Instead, they groaned under the oppressive rules they had to observe as well as the Roman government’s oppressive occupation of their beloved land.

Jesus addressed those who were thoroughly sick of their religion. He offered them His “yoke” – a new way to understand what God meant by His teachings in the Torah, not burdensome rules but a way of life that would set them free from the burden of their fear, guilt and shame. To wear a rabbi’s yoke meant to learn from him by association as a young, inexperienced ox would learn to pull a plough by being yoked with an older, trained and experienced ox.

The second step in becoming and being a disciple of Jesus is to accept Jesus’ yoke, to believe and put His teachings into practice by being in close association with Him, listening, observing learning and doing what He taught.

To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ (John 8:31-32)

Firstly, we must ask: Free from what? Of course, Jesus came to set us free from the burden of sin. He took the punishment for our sin to set us free from our guilt and from the power that sin has over us. He gave us His Holy Spirit to live within us as His personal presence with us. The Holy Spirit continually represents and reveals Jesus to us, reminding us of His teaching, empowering and teaching us how to live.

Secondly, Jesus’ yoke replaces all other yokes; religious yokes, denominational yokes, political yokes, or whatever association we have with any system that brings us into bondage. That does not mean that we are free to do as we please. The freedom Jesus offers us is freedom from the worst kind of slavery – slavery to ourselves and the ravages of selfish and greedy living.

Did you notice how He summed up His own disposition – “gentle and humble in heart”? Living selfishly makes us slaves to ourselves and alienates us from the people around us. When we take Jesus’ yoke and learn to live like He did, gentle and humble, compassionate and merciful, our hearts will be at rest as we are no longer tormented by the pangs of conscience and experience the peace of God that guards our hearts and minds.

Life is a journey. When we stubbornly refuse to follow God’s way, we get lost in the wilderness of the world’s ways and we will perish there without the nourishment and water of God’s Word. Jesus calls us to follow Him. He knows where He is going and He knows where He will take   us if we follow Him. He said that He is the way to the Father. If we accept His yoke, His way of living – generously and unselfishly – we will experience His rest, living without guilt or fear in the confidence of the perfect love of the Father.

However, there is a warning I must issue at this stage. Jesus’ yoke demands an all-or-nothing commitment to Him. No disciple was ever permitted to pick and choose what he would follow and what he would ignore. When he accepted a rabbi’s yoke, he accepted it in total. He could not change or omit any part of it. If he did, he was immediately disqualified.

Do you remember Jesus’ saying?

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Matt. 16:24).

Whoever does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:27).

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

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