Lowly In and Lowly Onward

And turn with me to Matthew Chapter eleven.

We're gonna be in verses twenty five through thirty. I'm

going to read our sermon text in a moment, kind

of in two pieces, but I want to start with

this term lowliness. Lowliness not loneliness as in solitude, but

lowliness a gentle humility. How central is this characteristic to

our life with God. I don't know that we think

about it very much. We might think about study, right,

the pursuit of spiritual under standing. It's important. The Bible

speaks of the importance of a pursuit of spiritual understanding

in a variety of ways. We might often think about

hard work, expending effort to do good things and to

build strong character. That's important. We see its importance throughout

the Bible. Yeah, when it comes to defining what it

means to have a relationship with God and the experience

of having a relationship with God, are those things what

the Bible puts at the center.

Or is it lowliness?

See our text in Matthew. This one paragraph is made

up of two pieces that Matthew has welded together.

The first piece.

Serves as the conclusion to several chapters that Matthew has

been unfolding regarding the question of who really gets Jesus,

who experiences for who he actually is, who is touched.

By him, changed by him, and.

Those chapters are capped with this statement from Jesus here

in Matthew chapter eleven. It's the first half of our text,

and it goes like this. At that time, Jesus declared,

I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and Earth, that

you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding

and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for such

was your greatacious will. All things have been handed over

to me by my father. No one knows the son

except the father, and no one knows the Father except

the son, and anyone to whom the son chooses to

reveal him. In many ways, that's the capping statement of

several chapters in Matthew here. But then the second half

of our text is the headwaters for several chapters in

Matthew that follow, and what those chapters are about is

who really understands how to obey God?

How do we go about grasping.

What it means to actually obey God and what it

looks like to do that?

In that second statement is the rest of our tech.

Jesus says this about himself and about what obeying him

is like Verse twenty eight, Come to me, all who

labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for

I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will

find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy

and my burden is light. And what Matthew has done

is he's taken these two statements that explore these two

different questions, and he's welded them together.

He's welded them.

Together because they share this surprising characteristic that defines life

with God. Lowliness and lowliness like a coin with two

sides being central to our life with God is the

answer to this question on one side of the coin,

what should I pursue in relationship with God? What should

I pursue in relationship with God? But lowliness is also

the answer to the other side of the coin. What

can I expect in relationship with God? Lowliness a gentle humility.

Let's look at Matthew here and see how God's word

brings this into sharper focus. We'll start with the first

side of the coin. Like this, lowliness is central to

pursuing a relationship with God. Lowliness is central to pursuing

a relationship with God. And the first question I really

would like to tackle is why is that? Why is

it that lowliness is so critical, so important, so central,

so defining. And the answer might be a little jarring

for us. Christ gives it to us in verse twenty six,

He says, yes, Father, for such was your gracious will,

or other translations might say, for such was your good pleasure.

In other words, God likes it that way. I mean,

he's God. He gets to like what he likes. The

way my father has put it, is this that God

is attracted to weakness. God prefers the heart of the

shepherd boy over the heart of the giant. God prefers

the leaders who say, we don't know what to do,

but our eyes are on you, over the leader who says,

is this not the great city which I have built?

In other words, when it comes to drawing people into

real relationship with himself, God likes to do things a

certain way, and Jesus says, I thank you Father that

you do it this way. In other words, it's Jesus's

good pleasure too, and the father and the son reserve

that prerogative for themselves. Jesus says, all things have been

handed over to me by my father. No one knows

the son except the father, and no one knows the

father except the son, and anyone to whom the son

chooses to reveal him. They are reserving their prerogative of revelation.

And lowliness is.

In God's sovereign prerogative what he is pleased with. You

might say, well, what is it? What is lowliness really

made of? What even is it?

Well? Matthew puts it this way. In verse twenty five.

He says, you've hidden these things from the wise and

understanding and revealed them to little children. He characterizes the

lowly as little children, and he actually gives us several

examples in the chapters prior.

I'll give you five.

For instance, in the chapters prior, he calls Jesus calls

his disciples little ones. These are the uneducated men who

left the trade that they knew and humbly followed Christ.

He Matthew.

Characterizes this one who was touched by Christ and changed

as one who is a leper who is kneeling before Christ,

humbly asking for healing. There's another a gentile soldier who, humbly,

though he was of high ranking position, humbly comes to

Christ and trusts Christ's authority. He says, Jesus, I know

how it works. If you just say the word, things

get done. Another Matthew himself, puts himself in this plot,

in this spot right here in his gospel account, as

one who walked away from wealth and walked away from

his position as a tax collector.

To humbly follow Christ.

And then he also uses the example of the blind

men who humbly cried out have mercy on us, son

of David. He stacks these examples up as little children,

that this is the heart of those who the Father

reveals things to and draws to himself. This is the

heart of those the son chooses to reveal things to.

The lowly, the little children. Is this.

Unexpected in some ways? You'd probably say, well, not that unexpected, Josh, Sorry,

you're surprised, didn't surprise. I mean, lowliness and humility is

a pretty straightforward virtue in the Bible. Yeah, let me

quote three verses for you. One from Proverbs eleven. With

the humble is wisdom. I'll quote from Second Samuel twenty two.

You say of a humble people, I'll quote from First

Corinthians Chapter one. God shows what is low and despised

in the world. So we're not that surprised that the

Bible says humility is great, that God loves lowliness and humility. Heck,

we love lowliness and humility.

It's cool. It's not that unexpected. Here's the unexpected part.

That lowliness is absolutely central to a relationship with God.

In other words, no lowliness, no relationship. Did you notice

in our text God reveals the truth about Christ to

little children, but he hides these things from the wise

and understanding. Let me go back and quote those three

verses again, but this time in full, from Proverbs eleven.

With the humble is wisdom. When pride comes, then comes disgrace.

From tewod Samuel twenty two. You save a humble people,

but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.

From First Corinthians one. God chose what is low and

despised in the world, even the things that are not

to bring to nothing, the things that are so that

no human being can boast in the presence of God.

He hides.

Things from those who are not lowly, no lowliness, no relationship.

You might say, well, is this saying we shouldn't be wise?

It's this saying we shouldn't study the Bible, we shouldn't

learn theology. Is this anti intellectual? No, it's not saying that.

That's the point. The point is that when we come

to Scripture, for example, we come praying for illumination. We

come in humble dependence. That of the spirit does not

reveal the spiritual significance of the words that we might read,

the words that we might even understand mentally. There's no

living it out. There's no food here unless God grants it.

It means, as we study theology, for example, it is

properly a humble faith seeking understanding, because the Lord promises

the cynic.

Nothing Christian.

As you move away from lowliness and towards pride, you

move away from what God is a true acted to.

You move away from what God blesses, You move away

from what God gives grace to, and you move towards

that which the Bible says God opposes. And I would

say this if you're here this morning and you're not

a Christian, it also means a couple of things.

For you.

That you should You should explore and investigate the scriptures,

explore and investigate Christianity. Just understand, ultimately faith will mean

coming to God on his terms, not confining him to yours.

But I would also say this, if you're here this morning,

then you have found a low point in your life

for whatever reason.

I would not be discouraged.

Often, people when they are at their lowest, are the

closest to the kind of humility God loves to honor.

And you can come to know the Christ that we praise.

You can come to know the Christ that we sing

about and trust.

And live with and know.

You can come to know that Christ today because God

reveals him.

To the lowly.

That's the first side of the coin of lowliness, that

it's absolutely central to pursuing a life with God. But

the second side of the coin I think is more

surprising than the first.

Here it is.

Lowliness is something you can actually expect from God. Isn't

that surprising that lowliness is something you can expect from God?

Or to put it in another way, lowliness defines life

with God not just in your approach to Him, but

in His approach to you.

And that's a praise.

Here's how Christ begins to talk about it in verse

twenty eight. Come to me, all who labor and are

heavy laden. Come to me, all who labor and are

heavy laden. What does that mean? Well, very much like

your life with God isn't defined by your smarts and

your understanding, it's also not defined by your hard work,

your burden carrying.

What's a burden? What does it mean to be heavy laden? Well?

Christ actually refers to these kinds of burdens later on

in Matthew, as he rebukes the Pharisees. He says this

about the Pharisees. He says, they tie up heavy burdens,

hard to bear and lay them on people's shoulders, but

they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

He's talking about harsh, high and mindy, high and mighty

spiritual teachers, task masters.

Maybe you've experienced.

Having a harsh spiritual task master in your life, maybe

as a pastor.

Or someone else earlier in your life.

Maybe there's a harsh spiritual task master that lives in

your head. Rent free and Christ describes their thinking.

This way.

He says, they take human things and they make them

of sacred importance, but they are numb to the claim

that truely these sacred things should have on their lives.

That's a hard and heavy life.

He says. They take.

Little observances and treat them with painstaking meticulousness, but neglect

weighty matters like real justice, real mercy, heart level faithfulness.

That's a hard and heavy life. They have the kind

of thinking that works hard to make life look photos

shoot ready on the outside, but inside is full of

greed and self indulgence. That's a hard and heavy life

because it's a never ending treadmill, because it never produces

the things that it promises, because it never results in

a heart that is truly happy in God and in

his righteousness.

But instead it.

Has to settle for self satisfaction and self righteousness. And

those things don't wear very well. They don't carry very well.

And Christ's message to all who aren't exhausted by burdens

like that is come to me, and I.

Will give you rest, rest for your souls.

Why why does Christ offer rest? From whence does this come?

This offer of rest? We receive rest from Christ because

he is lowly. He is gentle and lowly of heart,

much like God reveals himself to the lowly because that's

what he likes. Christ treats us gently and from a

heart that is lowly, because that's what he's like. He

is the kind of lowly savior who, when you couldn't

live fully in righteousness, he released the majesty of heaven,

humbled himself into the lowly body and personhood of a man,

and lived out fully that righteousness for you.

He's lowly like that. He's the kind of.

Lowly savior who, when justice demanded judgment for sin, he

submitted to being nailed to a lowly cross for judgment

instead of you, because he's lowly like that. And if

this is the kind of lowly savior he is, if

you can trust him for rest in his righteousness, if

you can trust him for rest in his sacrifice on

your behalf, then you can trust him for rest in

this life of obedience that he's calling you to. That's

what he's calling you to, a life of obedience, a

life of understanding what it means to live in a

godly way.

He says this in verse twenty nine. Through thirty.

In this way, take my yoke upon you and learn

from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls. For my

yoke is easy, and my burden is light. What Christ

has for you is a light burden. He has an

easy or you could translate it, he has a kind yoke.

What's a yoke? Very simply, a yoke is a it's

an implement. It's a method for carrying things. Right, If

there was a farmer who needed to carry a couple

of baskets of grain, he could tie each of them

to either ends of a pole, carry them across his shoulders,

not wear himself out, and he could just rest his

arms on his shoulders and the whole weight would be

supported on those shoulders, and he could make his way

to home or the marketplace, or wherever he needed to

go to carry this grain.

And that'd be great.

Sure beats schlepping it around like this, especially if that

yoke is well fitting and not too heavy. It's actually

this makes things easier and and the metaphor of a

yoke was actually pretty commonly used in Judaism at the

time to just talk about the way a spiritual teacher

would instruct his students in the way of obeying, of

obeying God.

So it was it would be a different school of thought.

And the teacher would say, hey, if if you come

and study under my school, if you take on my yoke,

I'm going to teach you how to obey God. And

there were a lot of different schools of thought, and

in fact, the few next few chapters of Matthew you

see quite a lot of debates about how to go

about obeying God. And Jesus says, if you're tired of

harsh spiritual taskmasters, come to me. I will really teach

you how to obey the Father. I will teach you

how to walk in godliness. And my yoke, my method.

It will be kind to you. It's not heavy. His

way is gentle, because he is gentle.

It's actually it's actually RESTful to walk.

This way reminds me of a friend of mine, friend

of mine who was he was always stressed out. He

was always stressed out because he had a harsh boss

and in fact, a lot of dramatic coworkers too. Somehow,

those two things always seemed to go together. He had

a really harsh boss and dramatic coworkers. So work was

just just stressville. And he was also in school and

he had a contentious relationship with his parents about grades,

so school work was always stressful. The guy was always

working and he was always stressed out, but he still

needed money. So one weekend he hired himself out to.

A painter.

And he went to go meet the painter boss, who

had a contract of painting this railing at an amusement park,

just like just long sections of railing, just over and

over and over again. And he's like, over painting these all.

He started my friend off with a couple of breakfast

tacos and the paintbrush, and he's like, here's how you

do it. These are the details that I want you

to attend to in order to do this right. And

you just can keep painting until lunchtime. I'll see it

lunch and then we'll work through the afternoon.

My friend he worked all day that day, and he

worked all day the next day.

And when I saw him the next week, I said, hey, man,

how was your weekend. He's like, I didn't have a weekend.

I worked all weekend and it was the most RESTful

thing I've ever experienced. I just did what the guy

asked me to do, and all of the stress bombs

from work, they just faded to the back of my

mind and my parents in school and all that, and

I'm I'm just painting the railing. It's like, I can't.

I gotta do some more of that. I would do

it for free. You see the rest that Christ has

for us. It's not relaxation, it's not mere lounging. What

he has for us is a life of obedience to God,

true Godliness. But as he teaches you the way of

learning to obey God, it fits you.

Because He made you.

It results in real Godliness because He is really God.

It works for the lowly because He is lowly. This lowliness,

lowliness is something you share with the living Christ. It's

at the very center of defining your life in Christ

with God, both in your approach to Him and in

His approach to you.

Church.

It is central to what we are called to pursue

in our relationship with God. We must never let our

hearts be far from that kind of kneeling before Jesus.

Like the leper who needed healing. We must never let

our hearts get far from the blind men who called

out have mercy on us. But here's the other side

of the coin.

Church.

Lowliness is also what we can expect from our Lord.

We can learn to expect that christ like obedience in

this life will be rest for our souls.