Rest. The word used most frequently in our Sabbath School Lesson pamphlet this quarter. “Thou shalt rest, Thou shalt rest!” These are words repeated each verse of
Hymn 387 – Come, O Sabbath Day, our theme hymn for this quarter.

Jesus calls to us
Come, Ye Sinners – Hymn 280 and we wish to reply
Jesus, I Come – Hymn 292.

The heavy laden are given rest in
Hymn 255 – I Cannot Tell Why (verse 2),
Hymn 368 – Watchman, Blow the Gospel Trumpet (verse 4) and the answer is in
Hymn 499 – What a Friend We Have in Jesus (verse 3) and
Hymn 476 – Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary.

The best teacher to have is Jesus who instructed us to “Take my yoke upon you”, and we may learn from Him all our lives:
Hymn 193 – Savior, Teach Me, verse 4 of
Hymn 297 – God Be Merciful to Me and
Hymn 524 – ‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus (verse 4).

Gentleness is found in verse 4 of
Hymn 231 – Bless Be the King,
Hymn 540 – Gentle Jesus Meek and Mild,
Hymn 542 – Jesus Friend So Kind and we ask
Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior – Hymn 596.

To learn unknown hymns, you will find the accompaniment music for each one at: https://sdahymnals.com/Hymnal/

Another great resource is for when there is a hymn you wish to sing, but can’t find it in your hymnal. Go to https://www.sdahymnal.org and in the search bar type a special word in that is in the hymn. I am sure you will be amazed at the help you will be given.

2 Timothy 2:15 KJV – “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

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Read  Matthew 11.29-30. Why does Jesus command us to take His yoke right after He has invited us to give Him our burdens and find true rest?

After the first imperative “come” in  Matthew 11.28-29.

Image © Jeff Preston from GoodSalt.com

“Take” and “learn” focus the attention of the audience (and the reader) on Jesus. We are to take His yoke and learn from Him.

The intimate relationship in the Godhead between the Father and the Son (already intimated in Matthew 11:25-27) offers a powerful illustration that may explain the yoke metaphor in these verses. Both the Father and the Son are working unitedly to save humanity. While the yoke is a symbol of submission (see Jeremiah 27), it is also a metaphor illustrating united purpose. We submit to His yoke and accept the task He gives us to bless those around us. We are not carrying His yoke; we are just yoked to Him because His yoke “is easy” and His burden “is light” (Matthew 11:30).

The second imperative “learn from Me” reiterates this concept. In Greek the verb “learn” is connected to the term “disciple.” When we learn from Jesus, we are truly His disciples. Obedience and commitment are characteristics of discipleship.

What is the difference between being “heavy laden” ( Matthew 11.28-29)?

The yoke was a common metaphor in Judaism for the law. Acts 15:10 uses it in reference to the law of circumcision. Galatians 5:1 contrasts the liberty Jesus offers with the yoke of bondage, which is a reference to the law as a means of salvation. Being yoked to Jesus emphasizes obedience and commitment to follow in His footsteps and to participate in His mission. While we cannot hope to add anything to the salvation that Jesus won for us on the cross, we can become His ambassadors and share the good news with those around us. Jesus’ interpretation of the law, as demonstrated in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) is even more radical than the Pharisees’ take on it. It requires heart surgery and transforms our motives — and, His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30).

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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Read Matthew 11:20-28, when Jesus says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (NKJV). What is the context of this statement? How does Jesus give us this rest?

Like all of us, Jesus never spoke without a context. In order to understand Him, we need to grasp the specific context surrounding a particular statement, especially if we want to avoid misunderstanding Jesus.

Image © Rolf Jansson from GoodSalt.com

Matthew 11 marks a turning point in Matthew’s Gospel. The statements denouncing important Galilean cities are the harshest heard so far in the Gospel. Jesus does not curry favors; He puts the finger where it hurts; He associates with the “wrong” people (Matthew 9:9-13); His claim to be able to forgive sins is scandalous in the eyes of the religious leaders (Matthew 9:1-8).

Indeed, Jesus speaks some powerfully condemning words to the people, even comparing them, unfavorably, to Sodom, viewed then (as today) as a place of implacable wickedness. “But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you” (Matthew 11:24).

Tensions are rising — and yet, in the midst of all of this, Jesus changes gear and offers true rest. He can do so because “all things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father” (Matthew 11:27). Jesus’ ability to give rest is based on His divinity and His oneness with the Father.

Before we can come to unload our burdens, we need to understand that we cannot carry them alone. In fact, most of us will not come unless we have recognized our true condition. Jesus’ invitation is need-based.

His statement in Matthew 11:28 begins with an imperative in the Greek original. “Come” is not optional; “come” represents the precondition of finding rest. “Come” means that we need to surrender control. In a time when we can conveniently control many things in our lives via our smartphones, coming to Jesus is not the natural direction. In fact, for most people, surrender is the toughest part of the Christian life.

We love to talk, and rightly so, about all that God does for us in Christ and how we cannot save ourselves and the like. All that is true. But in the end, we still have to make the conscious choice to “come” to Jesus, which means surrender to Him. Here is where the reality of free will becomes front and center in the Christian life.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Matthew 11:20-30, Matthew 5:5, Deuteronomy 18:15, Galatians 5:1, Exodus 18:13-22, Galatians 6:2.

Memory Text: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

What a wonderful promise we have been given here by Jesus. After all, who among us at times hasn’t felt heavy-laden, if not so much with work itself (though that can often be the case) but with the labor and heavy-ladenness that life itself brings? And Jesus here is telling us that, yes, He knows what we are going through, and yes, He can help us — that is, if we let Him.

And then, after telling us to bear His yoke, Jesus says, “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). In other words, Get rid of the yokes and burdens that you are carrying (give them to Me) and take Mine upon yourself instead, for Mine are easier to bear.

How can we experience the rest that Jesus is talking about? After all, we live in a world where, after sin, the Lord said to Adam “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread” (Genesis 3:19). Thus, we have known what it is like to labor and to be carrying burdens that can seem way too hard to bear, at least by ourselves alone.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, July 31.

Sunday–>

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When I read in Wednesday’s section of this week’s lesson that David’s self-confidence was shattered, it reminded me of a conversation I had years ago with a man who was studying eastern religions.  He asked me about my faith; so I told Him I believed in Jesus.

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“But this faith in Jesus leads you to believe in yourself, right?” He asked.

“No.” I said. “It actually makes me not believe in myself at all. Only in Jesus.”

The young man didn’t even try to hide his scowl, and to this date has not wanted to hear any more about my faith. Apparently believing in oneself is very important to this young man. But how can I believe in myself, when I know all too well what Paul confessed?

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. Romans 7:18 NKJV

Hard for me to believe in something where nothing good dwells.

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Romans 7:23-24 NKJV

Romans 7 knows me all too well. But there is hope! Not in me, but in Jesus.

I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Romans 7:25 NKJV

My mind wants to serve God, but my flesh wants to serve sin. So what is the solution? Paul shares the solution in Romans 8. Many agree that Romans 7 describes the unconverted man while Romans 8 describes the converted man.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4 NKJV

Jesus took my flesh with nothing good in it and crucified it. Now I can walk in the spirit and the law of love can be fulfilled in me.

And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:24 NKJV

In the physical world one must be born before they can die. In the Spiritual world one must die before they can be born.

For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. Galatians 5:17 NKJV

When the Spirit wars against the flesh is it the good things or the bad things we cannot do? Which is stronger? The Holy Spirit or the flesh? The previous verse makes it obvious.

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Galatians 5:16 NLT

So if I walk in the Spirit I have victory over the flesh. Why do I need victory over my flesh? Why can’t I believe in my own flesh like my friend wanted me to? Let’s examine the works of the flesh and see how many of them are good things to believe in.

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21 NKJV

Eeeww! I didn’t find anything good in there, did you? No wonder Jesus had to crucify my flesh on the cross, and I must die to selfishness daily. See 1 Corinthians 15:31 and Luke 9:23. You may ask how does one die daily? I don’t think we can die on our own. We must be crucified with Christ. See Galatians 2:20. As we behold Jesus emptying Himself on the cross, the Holy Spirit empties us of self too.

For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. Galatians 6:13-15 NKJV

It’s impossible to look at the cross and glory in my flesh.

“When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.” -Isaac Watts

“What is justification by faith? It is the work of God in laying the glory of man in the dust, and doing for man that which it is not in his power to do for himself. When men see their own nothingness, they are prepared to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ. –Ellen White, Faith I Live by, Page, 111

Now that my glory is laid in the dust, look at what is possible.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Galatians 5:22-26 NKJV

When the Holy Spirit fills me, this fruit shows up in my life. This is not my works! We saw earlier how disgusting all my works are. No, this fruit is not the results of my works. It is the result of the Holy Spirit living in me and producing His own fruit.

When we live by faith on the Son of God, the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives; not one will be missing. –Ellen White, Desire of Ages, Page 676

See why I told my friend the answer is not for me to believe in myself?

For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, Philippians 3:3 NKJV

“The circumcision” are those like Abraham, who stopped trusting his flesh to produce the fruit that only the Holy Spirit can produce. God had Abraham put away the part of the flesh he was trusting in so He could trust God’s promises instead. I pray God will give me another opportunity to talk to my friend again, so I can explain all that is possible when we stop believing in ourselves and believe in Jesus. Then again, the Holy Spirit can have anybody explain that to him. What the Holy Spirit does in me He can do in anyone. After all, it’s not me working. It is the fruit of the Spirit.

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