All That Jesus Taught Bible Study - Part 44 — Zac Poonen

Jesus Reveals the Father and Gives Rest

We continue our study today in all that Jesus taught and we are now in Matthew's Gospel chapter 11 and verse 28. We looked at verse 27 towards the end of our last study and the last sentence in verse 27 says that no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

You may think you know the Father, as I said, but the test of it is whether you're free from anxiety, fear, etc. and whether you turn to Him first whenever you are in any need. When you're sick, do you go to a doctor first or to your father?

There's nothing wrong in going to a doctor. There's nothing wrong in taking medicines. There's nothing wrong in seeking human help for anything. But we must develop the habit of going to our father first.

It's like a little child turns to his parents first when it's in need and not to strangers and neighbors. So that's the test of whether we really know the Father. It says no one knows the Father. So we need to ask Jesus to reveal the Father to us.

Insecurity, Jealousy, and Knowing God as Father

It's the most important need among Christians. A lot of competition, jealousy, strife is because of insecurity in many Christians. I've observed that for more than 50 years. I was myself insecure for many years after I was born again.

And in those years when I was insecure, I wanted to impress people. And I was jealous, competitive, and defeated everything, you name it. Insecure, afraid, anxious. But when I came to know God as my Father intimately, and that Jesus revealed the Father to me, when God filled me with the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit opened my eyes to see my Abba, my Daddy in Heaven, that changed my whole life.

It became the foundation of my life. And it's so important. Just like the Father reveals the Son, the Son reveals the Father. And that is connected to what Jesus says in the next verse. Sometimes many people take verse 28 all by itself.

It's one of the bad habits that Christians have. They know individual verses. They memorize verses, which is a very good thing. But very often, those memory verses become just isolated verses, completely out of context.

And if you meditate only on that verse without seeing the context in which it comes, you may miss out. You may get some truth, but you miss out on the whole truth. So here, come to me, the Lord Jesus says.

What's he talking about? No one knows the Father, verse 27, except the one to whom the Son will reveal him. Jesus says, I want to reveal the Father to you. So come to me. So that's not a verse primarily for unbelievers.

Come to me, you who are weary, heavy laden with sin, defeated, insecure, with strife and problems in your life. Come to me. What will I do? I will reveal the Father to you. And what will be the result of that?

Rest in the Midst of Inner Turmoil

You'll get rest. I'll give you rest. That rest comes through knowing the Father. That's the way we come to rest. So there's a connection between verse 27 and 28 that you won't understand if you just memorize verse 28.

Like a lot of Christians do. Like I myself did for many years. Jesus wants to bring us to a life of rest. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 57, about the life of wicked people. Isaiah 57, it says in verse 20, the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot be quiet.

No rest. Its waters are always stirring up refuse and mud, like a tossing sea. There's no peace for the wicked. Unrest and turmoil in the heart is the identifying mark of an evil man. When we talk about evil people, people think only of terrorists and murderers.

But anyone who's got insecurity, jealousy, strife in his heart is to some degree evil. He may not be as evil as a terrorist, but he says the wicked is like that. The tossing sea. If your heart is, you find at any time your heart is disturbed with somebody else or what somebody has said about you or what somebody did to you or what you expected somebody to do and he did not do it for you and you're disturbed and your heart is like a sea in turmoil.

You've seen pictures of roaring waves in a troubled sea. If your heart is like that, according to this verse, there's some wickedness there. I mean, I don't want to call you a wicked person, but it's wickedness that causes that type of restlessness inside.

Whereas God's will for you is that you might be at rest. Now compare that type of troubled sea with another sea described in Revelation chapter 15 where the righteous, godly people are standing. Revelation 15 is a beautiful contrast.

It says here about those who overcame, who came out victorious. Revelation 15 verse 2. I saw a number of people who had come off victorious from the Antichrist, standing on a sea of glass, holding the harps of God and singing.

Now a sea of glass is the exact opposite of what we saw in Isaiah 57 verse 20. And I remember the years when I was in the Navy and I was on ships where I've seen seas in great turmoil, waves 10 foot high with a ship going up and down and up and down and making one seasick.

And I've also seen seas which are exactly like glass, not a ripple right up to the horizon. It's a great contrast. A troubled sea and a sea like glass. God's will is if we come off victorious from everything that's the opposite of Christ, symbolized by the beast there, our inner life will be like our standing on a sea of glass.

Not a ripple, not an anxiety, not a fear. You may say such a life is impossible on this earth. Well, in that case, according to your faith, be it unto you. It will be impossible for you. But someone else who's got 10 times more problems than you, he says no.

If God says it's possible, it's possible. Brother, according to your faith, be it unto you. You will have a life like a sea of glass. It doesn't depend on how serious your problems are. It depends on how much you believe.

Faith and Christ's Promise of Rest

What Jesus says that I will give you rest. And when the Lord says, come to me and I will give you rest like a sea of glass. The next question he asks you is, do you believe I can do this for you? You remember when we were studying about the blind men in Matthew 9 and verse 27 to 30?

He asked them this question. Do you believe that I can do this for you? And they said yes. And he said, according to your faith, be it unto you. That is a law with God. According to your faith, be it unto you.

It has got nothing to do with the number of problems you have or difficulties you have, how great your sickness is. I'm not saying you'll get perfect healing from all your sickness. That's not my point.

But I believe you can have perfect rest, whatever your problems may be. That he has promised. I will give you rest. There is no promise. Let me tell you the truth. There's no promise in the New Testament that Jesus will heal all our sicknesses.

And that does not work on earth also. I mean, we've got to face reality. But he has promised to give us rest. That's a clear promise. And we can claim it, just like a check signed by Jesus Christ. We can take to the bank of heaven and say, Lord Jesus, you said if I come to you, you will not only give me forgiveness of sins, but you'll give me rest.

I want it. You said you'll reveal the Father to me. I want to know the Father. How did you get forgiveness of sins? You came to Christ. And you believed that he would give it. Why is it so many other people in the world, for whom Christ died, have not got forgiveness of sins?

Because they don't believe what you believed. It is according to your faith. Not according to what we ask for. A lot of people ask and never get anything. If you ask and you don't believe, you'll get nothing.

We have to ask in faith. So come to me and I will give you rest. There is no partiality with Christ. If you come to him with all your heart, as I did, and say, Lord, I'm so insecure in my life. I'm backslidden.

I'm failing and I'm insecure and I'm jealous and I've got bitterness. Say it. Explain. Be honest and tell the Lord the whole thing and say, Lord, I want to know the Father. He will reveal the Father to you and your life will move to a much higher plane than you have ever known so far.

Coming Directly to Christ Instead of Human Mediators

Come to me. Don't go to men. Don't go to preachers. Don't ask some preacher to lay his empty hands on your head. You'll get nothing from him. Go to Jesus and ask him to lay his nail-pierced hands on your head.

That's how I received the anointing. I didn't ask any man to put his hands on my head. I asked Christ to lay his hands on my head. That's how I got the anointing. I'm not saying God doesn't use the laying on of hands but if you do get laying on of hands, make sure it's a really godly man who lays his hands on your head and they are very rare on earth nowadays and a lot of people who go around laying hands on people's head only bring confusion into their lives.

Come to Christ. Go directly to Christ. You don't need a second mediator. A lot of Christians don't go directly to Christ. Jesus has come to me. And who do Christians go to? They go to their pastor. When Jesus has come to me, they go to their pastor.

No wonder you have problems. I'm not saying we should not seek counsel from godly man by all means but if you want rest, you got to come to Christ. And unconsciously sometimes many people have made their pastor a second mediator between them and God.

The Bible says there's only one mediator between God and man, 1 Timothy 2 verse 4 and 5 that is Jesus Christ. The man Christ Jesus. He's the only mediator between God and man. I can go to God directly through Jesus Christ.

Our Roman Catholic friends say you have to go through Mary in order to come to Christ. There's a second mediator. You go to Mary and then go to Christ and then go to God. Now a lot of Protestants despise that Roman Catholic teaching but they're doing the same thing themselves.

They go to a pastor who has to go to Christ or they go to some so-called prophet mostly false prophet and ask him can you find out what God wants me to do? They don't go directly to Jesus. They go through a prophet and that guy is often very often only interested in your money and trying to fool you.

Now if you have to go to us through a second mediator I would suggest you go to Mary rather than that pastor because Mary at least we know is a godly woman. I'm saying that sarcastically. You don't need a second mediator.

Go directly to Jesus Christ. What does he say? Come to me. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me and you shall find rest for your soul. So this rest is not something that comes automatically without our doing anything.

Taking Christ's Yoke as a Partnership

The two mistakes that Christians make is in this particular realm is to believe that God will do everything I have to do nothing or I have to do everything and it all depends on me and not upon God. He's finished it all on the cross.

Now I have to do everything now on. Both are completely wrong. The Christian life is a partnership. What Jesus did on the cross was a finished work but I don't get the benefit of that finished work till I take his yoke upon me.

What does it mean in verse 29? Take my yoke upon you. I mean unfortunately now in the cities we hardly ever see two oxen plowing a field. It's all tractors nowadays but in Jesus' day and even today in the villages of India we see oxen plowing the field.

A yoke is on the neck of the two oxen and they plow the field together and when say an ox dies and they get a junior ox to now to take the place of the dead ox the senior ox has to teach the junior ox how to plow a straight furrow and we could say the senior ox tells the junior ox if it could in language learn from me.

You don't know how to plow a straight furrow but if you take my yoke upon you I've got enough experience here. I've done this for years. Now you're just coming in to learn it. Learn from me. Take my yoke upon you and make sure you don't rush ahead of me or lag behind when I move forward.

Walk in the same pace with me step by step and make sure you don't wear off into some other direction. Stick with the direction I'm going and you will find perfect rest. You'll be able to do a great job.

You won't be doing a zigzag furrow through the field. It'll be absolutely straight. That's the picture here. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me how to walk straight and upright without any crookedness.

Trust me, I'm a partner with you. Isn't that wonderful? A lot of business people would be delighted if the top businessman in the country asked them to be partners with them. Say, wow. The top businessman in the country wants me to be a partner with him?

I mean, that's unheard of. Top businessman would not come to some businessman who's just starting to do business and say, be a partner with me. And on top of that, if that top businessman says, in this partnership, I'll do all the investing with my money and you have to put in nothing, but the profits we'll share.

They say, that's absolutely unheard of. How in the world can any businessman be willing to do that? That's what Jesus says. Come to me. Take my yoke upon you. Let's get into a partnership. You don't have to invest anything, but be a partner with me 100 and let's proceed doing this God's work together.

That is the way to serve the Lord. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm gentle and humble in heart. How do we come to this life of rest? It is not by study. It is by the characteristic of our heart changing through our fellowship with Jesus Christ.

Taking Christ's yoke upon us is a picture of fellowship and we are very careful not to rush ahead, not to lag behind. Fellowship means walking with him, not going off in some other direction. For example, one day you want to watch some television program or a movie which you're absolutely sure in your heart Christ would not be willing to sit and watch with you if he were in the room.

He'd walk out. What are you doing then? You're letting him go and you're going off in another direction. You won't have rest in your souls. You may enjoy the movie. Your carnal self may enjoy the movie but you lose your rest.

That's one example. Or sometime in the office perhaps. You come into a situation where you're asked to do something unrighteous. Your conscience says, no, you can't do it. But you say, well, I can get some benefit out of it.

My boss is asking me to do it and I'll get some profit out of the whole thing. Now you know that Jesus wouldn't do it. If Jesus was sitting there with you, you wouldn't sign that paper. But you go ahead and sign it because of the benefit you can get.

You're veered off in another direction. No wonder you get unrest. Now there could be many, many, many other instances like that. When you're tempted to speak a rude word to somebody in your home or in your office or on the road when somebody violates the rules of the road.

These are the occasions in life where we tend to veer off and say, I want to go in my own direction. I want to say what I want to say. I want to let that person have a piece of my mind. And that's how we miss God's will and that's how we come into unrest.

Learning Gentleness and Humility from Jesus

So this is a great verse. Learn gentleness and humility from me. He never taught us, he never told us to learn how to preach from him. A lot of people spend hours trying to learn how to preach. They spend even more hours learning how to sing and how to play instruments.

That's all fine. But the one thing Jesus told us to learn from him was gentleness and humility. Now I want to tell each one of you, it's more important in your life to learn gentleness and humility than to learn to play a musical instrument or to learn to sing perfectly.

All that is good, but the good can be the enemy of the best. The best is to learn gentleness and humility because that will help you in your life. The other will only help you to have a ministry and get some honor from men.

Are you willing to come to Christ and say, Lord, I want to learn two things fundamentally from you? Not even all details about prophecy and doctrines and all that, but gentleness and humility. Many other things will fall into place when you learn these two things.

These are the two primary things that Jesus said we must learn from him because what we have inherited from Adam is the exact opposite of these two. The nature of Adam has made us hard and proud. We are very hard on people.

We are not hard on people we are afraid of, but we are hard on people who are gentle and quiet. We take advantage of them. That just shows how evil we are. We are hard on people, and we are very proud.

Any little thing that we accomplish, which makes us better than somebody else, brings pride into our heart. God is the enemy of the proud, and when God is your enemy, you'll never have rest. So Jesus says, learn from me the two opposites of this nature of Adam, humility and gentleness.

This is fundamental, dear friends, and if you want to come into a life of rest, you better take this seriously. That means, how do we learn from Jesus? Jesus is not here physically, and it's not by sitting and waiting for some revelation from God to know what Jesus is like.

All I got to do is read the scriptures, read the Gospels especially, and see how Jesus conducted himself, see how he spoke to others, see how he related to people, his attitude towards all types of people, to Pharisees, to prostitutes, to evil people, to money changers, to lepers, and to sinful people.

And you see, there I can see his gentleness and his humility. And if I am willing to learn from him, I will come to a life of rest. That is God's will. It is God's will that we should come to a life of rest.

Sabbath Rest for the People of God

Let me show you Hebrews in chapter 4. It says in Hebrews 4 and verse 9, There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. And he says, this is not the rest that verse 8, Hebrews 4, 8, which Joshua gave to the Israelites in Canaan.

That was only a picture. If Joshua had given them that rest, then he would not be speaking again of a rest after that in the book of Psalms. Today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts. That's in the Psalms.

So he says that rest that Joshua gave to the Israelites in Canaan was only a picture. There's another rest, symbolized by the Sabbath. And that is the rest that we can experience in our life, the rest that Jesus spoke of.

The Old Testament Sabbath was a very important law. But like everything in the Old Testament, it was a picture of something we can experience today, this life of rest. This is what Jesus taught. He said, go into every nation and teach people what I have taught.

Teach people what I have commanded. This is a command. It's a command. Come to me. Learn from me. Those are commands. Go into all the world, make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to do everything I have commanded.

That is, teach them to come to him, teach them to learn from him. Humility and gentleness. That's what we're trying to do right now. And finally, he says, when I tell you to take my yoke upon you, it's not going to be like the yoke of the law, with its thou shalt, thou shalt not, you shall, you shall not, a heavy burden.

The Easy Yoke and the New Covenant Life

My yoke is easy. And my load is light. The commandments of Jesus are not like the commandments of the law. In this sense, like a little verse says, the law commands us to run, but Jesus commands us to fly.

Much higher. The law says, don't commit adultery. Jesus says, don't even lust with your eyes. The law commands us to run. Jesus commands us to fly. But there's one big difference. The law commands us to run, but does not give us feet or hands.

How can you run if you don't have feet or hands? Jesus commands us to fly, but he gives us wings. So which is easier? To run without legs or to fly if you have wings? Definitely this is easier. So the New Covenant command is fly.

The Old Testament commandment is run. The New Testament commandment is fly. But the difference is the law could not give us legs. Jesus gives us wings. We'll stop here and continue our study in the next episode.