Matthew 48
Right expectations (Part 4)
Our expectations come with Consequences
Matthew 11:25–30 (NIV)
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 “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, for 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.”
Expectations defined
· a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future.
· a belief that someone will or should achieve something.
Expectations are everywhere!
The expectations that we set, dictate pretty much everything!
· How to respond in any given situation
o Our mood
o Our attitudes
· All this is controlled by the expectations we set!
· And sometimes our unrealistic or false expectations lead us down the wrong path
Book smart Vs Been around smart
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
· Jesus thanks God in all circumstances
o I praise you
o Calls Him Father!
o And acknowledges His power as “Lord of heaven and earth”!
o No matter what, Jesus gives God the glory and praise
o In good times and bad
o Because at the end of the day, it’s all God's will!
Jesus thanks Him for hiding “these things”. What things?
· From John questioning Jesus
· To the crowd’s bad expectations
· To the 3 towns that failed to see Jesus for who He was
· Jesus is saying that God hid these things from them all
The good news is sometimes missed by “Smart people”.
· The learned and the wise
· You ever know some who were so smart they were dumb?
· That they felt like they knew it all
· They had seen it all
· And that there was no more room for learning new things?
· That’s what Jesus is talking about here!
But kids on the other hand
· They see things that we sometimes miss
· We miss it because we think we know!
· And I will tell you, I learn a lot from “Babes in Jesus”
o They have been in the world and found it to be not so smart
o And they are eager to learn from the master!
Sometimes knowledge in the world makes us miss Jesus all around us
· We think that the world has it all figured out
· We think that we can out-think the “lord of heaven and earth”
· And when we are wise in the world, we are lost in it at the same time!
It’s all in His and in His time!
26Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
· There is free will
· And there is God's will
· And like a beautiful concert they intersect
o God's will is completed no matter how you choose
o But you still have the choice
· And here God has hidden His Son and the Gospel for His purpose and His Glory
o Why Peter and not Nicodemus?
o God can show His true glory if He equips the called and does not call the equipped!
Acts 4:13 (NIV)
13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
· God loves to use ordinary folks to extraordinary things!
The key to salvation revealed
27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
All things have been committed to me by my Father
· Jesus again establishes God the Father’s authority in the Trinity
· That God gave Him the power to carry out His mission
No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son
· Jesus lays the foundation for their relationship
· The intimacy and the depth
· And I think dispels the myth that God somehow needs the relationship with us
· They live in the perfect relationship all the time!
and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
· This is the key part of this verse!
· That the only way to the Father is through Jesus!
· And it is His choice to reveal Him to whom He wants!
John 14:6 (NIV)
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
One last plea!
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
· The plea is “come to me”
o I can imagine His tone change
o And He almost seems to be understanding of their pain
· All who are weary and burdened
o Aren’t we all?
§ Tired
§ Frustrated
§ Anxious
§ Shoulders just heavy
§ Feels like the weight of the world are on them
o We are all weary and burdened??
· AND I will give you REST!
o I could sure use rest
o We all can
o God sees, Jesus sees our heart
§ See that we are all just tired
§ We are worn out
§ Our hearts hurt
o And He wants to give us rest
o Not just any rest, the kind of rest you can’t get from anyone or anything
29 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.
· Where is this rest at?
· He says take my yoke!
o Follow me
o Be obedient to me
o Walk with me
o Learn from me
o Let me guide you
o Surrender to me
o Give it all to me!
· He says I am gentle, I am humble
o I will not dictate to you
o Or rule you with an iron fist
o I will gently and humbly guide you
o I will give you solid instruction that’s easy to follow
· And you won’t just find physical rest, you will finally find rest for your SOUL!
o Rest that comes in any season
o In any circumstance
o No matter what the world throws at you
o No matter how people treat you
o In me is a rest that surpasses all
o It's rest deep into your SOUL!
30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
· Yoke was used as a term of submission
· And easy really translates as kind
· And just as a well-fitted yoke on an ox makes Labor easy
· Jesus' yoke makes surviving a lost and broken world easier,
· we see things different under His guidance
· we can be kinder because we are no longer yoked to a harsh and cruel world
· our burden becomes light because we lay all our burdens on Him
· we lay them at the foot of the cross
· and let Him carry them for us
