The Vue - Gentle & Lowly

Show Notes

Bryan Howard explores the passage of Matthew 11:28-30 where Jesus describes His heart as gentle and lowly. The message emphasizes that Jesus calls, died for, and gives rest to the broken, inviting them to come as they are and find true rest in Him. The sermon calls listeners to enjoy a deep relationship with Christ beyond simply knowing about Him.

What is The Vue?

Bellevue Baptist Church College Ministry

Amen. Well guys, it is good to finally be with you, be able to open up God's Word. Can we just say thank you to Owen and the worship team for leading us so well? Let me just tell you, at my previous context, I had to beg some people to lead worship every week. And so what a gift it is to have y'all. Y'all are so incredible. You've led us to the throne really, really well. Before we get started, I just want to say thank you, not just to the band, but to y'all. You guys are awesome. You've been so kind in welcoming Kendall and I, not just to Memphis and Bellevue, but to The View, being so intentional with your questions. And let me just tell you, we have enjoyed so much getting to know each and every one of you. And I think that's why I'm here. Just so you know, I moved to Memphis just for you guys. I want to get to know you. And so if we haven't met yet, please, please, please come and introduce yourself. And if we have met, please tell me your name again, because I probably forgot. But I'm so excited to be here. I'm so excited to open up God's word. Before we get started, I do just want to address all the churchgoers, everyone who has grown up in church, which is me, myself, and I too. We are masters at putting on a good smile. We are really, really good at pretending that everything is okay when everything is not always okay. And on Sunday mornings and now Thursday nights, you probably do the same. And we can each easily fall into that habit. And I just want you to know, I don't know what your story is. Maybe you're having a phenomenal week and you're super happy and I'm being a buzzkill right now. But maybe some of you are walking in this room and you are experiencing some stuff that you don't really want to talk about. Maybe you're experiencing a tragedy, maybe something in your family, maybe for yourself, you're struggling with a sin that just keeps coming back and you just can't kick it. Whatever it is, I just want you to know you're in the right place. You're in the right place. You belong here. And there's no mistake that God has you here tonight. So as I was praying through what the Lord wanted us to walk through, he just kept bringing back Matthew chapter 11 to me. And it is the passage where Jesus describes his own heart. And so I thought there's no better place to start our ministry and our time together than talking about Jesus, right? Yes and amen. But it would not be super helpful if I got up here and just tried to describe Jesus to you. Instead, there's a passage in scripture where Jesus describes himself. So we're gonna take his very own words about what his heart looks like. There's an incredible book by Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly. Has anyone read it? Anyone, a couple? Okay, that's great. It's a phenomenal book. And we're not gonna go through the book, but the whole book is written about the passage that we are in tonight. And it's so special because it is the only place in all scripture where Jesus describes his own heart. And he describes himself as gentle and lowly. And there's a couple, I like naturally push against that because I think for me in my life, when I think of Jesus, I normally don't think of him as gentle and lowly. Those are not the first two words that come out of my mouth when I talk about Jesus. Normally it's that he is victorious over sin and death, that he is all powerful, that he is the all knowing, like he is God himself. Those are the things I really wanna emphasize about Jesus, especially when I'm trying to tell people about him, right? And I think that's because part of that those attributes is what our Christian culture really celebrates. But the reality is the Jesus we've been worshipping all night, that's just not how he describes himself. He describes himself as gentle and lowly. And I think naturally I push away from that idea for really two reasons. Number one, a gentle and lowly Jesus welcomes me as I am. He welcomes me as I am. And I don't know about you guys, but I do not like to interact with people when I'm messy, man, when my sin is showing, when I don't have things together. I definitely do not show up on Sunday morning with my hair all crazy. I put some product in this bad boy, okay? And I shower and I put deodorant on and I make myself look presentable because I want people to think that I have my stuff together, right? And so the reason I push against a gentle and lowly Jesus is because he welcomes messy Brian. He welcomes Brian with all the sin and all the shame. And that forces me to actually come face to face and recognize my sin. Secondly, I really don't like the gentle and lowly Jesus because if Jesus is gentle and lowly, then I have to be gentle and lowly. And again, when you guys describe me, if I could just be as prideful and selfish as possible, I really would love for y'all to be like, man, he's so cool and he's strong and bold and wise. Like those are attributes I would love to have. If someone described me as gentle and lowly, I don't know if I'd be offended or like really happy. I don't know. They're just not the words I'd really choose for myself. But that is exactly how Jesus describes himself. In John 14, nine, Jesus is talking to one of his disciples, Philip. You know, Philip, he doesn't get much airtime in the Bible, but Philip's great. And he had been with Jesus for all three years of Jesus' ministry. And in John 14, nine, Jesus looks to them and says, have I been with you so long and you still don't know me, Philip? Have I been with you so long and you still don't know me, Philip? And my fear is this, could that be us? Could that be us? Do we really know the heart of Jesus? Do you have a life altering, deep relationship with Christ? Because so many of you have grown up in church, at least the ones I've met in the past week. And if you've grown up in church, let me just say this, just like me, we are in danger of Jesus becoming common. We are in danger of settling for the knowledge of Christ instead of a relationship with Christ. Any history buffs in here? Anyone like history? Maybe a half a person. Okay, Daniel, I like it. Sweet. Well, you know the riddle. It's not really a riddle, it just rhymes, it's good. 1492, who sailed the ocean blue? Christopher Columbus, our guy, yep. And so fun fact about him, so when he was sailing around and trying to find the America, really, he hit the Caribbean islands. And he stopped and he named them the Indies. Anyone know why? Yeah, he thought he hit the edge of the world. He thought he had gone all the way to Asia. But what he didn't realize was that there was all of North and South America that was uncharted. There was literally millions of miles of uncharted territory. Could it be that you and I have settled for the small islands of our relationship with Jesus when in reality, there's an unfathomable depth of the heart of Christ that we've just never explored? When Jesus describes himself, he says he is gentle and lowly. And that leads us to our main text tonight. So if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open up to Matthew chapter 11, we're just gonna read a couple verses, verses 28 through 30. It'll be up on the screen if you don't have your Bible. Jesus says this, "'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.'" There's a 19th century pastor in London named Charles Spurgeon, you should know that name. It's an important name. We quote him a lot. And Charles Spurgeon points out, and I said it earlier, that this is the only time in all of scripture that Jesus describes his own heart. And I think if this is the only place, we should probably take it seriously. And Jesus doesn't do things randomly. He didn't make a mistake. He chose these words for a reason. So why does Jesus call himself gentle and lowly? Is he saying that he's like nice and weak? No, that doesn't make any sense. So when he says he's gentle, he's really saying that he's humble. He's humble, he's selfless. And when he says he's lowly, he's really saying that he's accessible, that he's near to us, that Jesus is the most gentle and accessible and approachable and tender and understanding and kind and non-abrasive, non-manipulative soul in all of existence. Do you know him? Do you know that Jesus? Tonight, I really wanna focus on what it means to enjoy, not just know, but enjoy a gentle and lowly Jesus. All right? So let's get some more context for this passage. We're in Matthew 11, earlier in the chapter, we are right in the middle of Jesus's ministry. So he has been out ministering to big cities. He's performing large miracles. He's sharing the gospel. He's inviting people to repent and to be saved. And many, many people are rejecting him. They're rejecting him. So in verse 20, it says that he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent. And so he continues to preach the gospel. And in love, he tells them that they need to repent. And if they don't, there is another side. And he says that no one can come to the Father except through me, that there's an exclusivity to Christ. And then that is when he says, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And do you see what Jesus is doing here? He's extending once again, an invitation to save those who have rejected him over you.

over and over and over. How kind, how patient Jesus is. It's good news that he describes himself as gentle and lowly because that means that he humbles himself to be accessible to those who reject him over and over and over. And that's good news because that's you and that's me. And to those who reject him, he says, verse 28, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden. I want you to notice who Jesus is calling here. He calls those who labor and are heavy laden. And those who are trying so hard to be good, but they just keep failing. Those who are overwhelmed, who are burdened by their own sins, who are burdened by the sins of the world. In other words, the first truth I want you to see tonight is that Jesus calls the broken. Jesus calls the broken. Do you know why he calls the broken? Because he's lowly, he's approachable. He doesn't say, clean yourself up. He doesn't say, get your act together. He doesn't, he says, come as you are. And we see this all throughout scripture. We look back at Matthew chapter eight, where Jesus meets a leper. You know, the leprosy, Pastor Ben just talked on this a couple of weeks ago, but lepers were not even allowed in the same city. They were cast out into leper parks. And if you saw a leper, you were running the other way because you were scared to catch their disease. And look how Jesus approaches them. He says, and behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will be clean. And immediately the leprosy was cleansed. Friends, there is no sin in your life that can scare Jesus away. He meets you exactly where you are, exactly where you are. In John eight, there's a woman caught in adultery and the Pharisees find her in the act. They drag her out indecent in front of everyone. They want to humiliate her and they want her to pay for her sin with her life. They want to stone her. And look what Jesus says. He says, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw the stone. And once more, he bent down and wrote on the ground, but when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the oldest ones. And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. And Jesus stood up and said to her, woman, where are they? No one condemned you. She said, no one Lord. And Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. See, Jesus meets us exactly where we are, but he loves you too much to leave you as you are. There is a calling that Christ has for the broken. In Matthew nine, it says this, that Jesus went all throughout the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. And when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Friends, the first thing Jesus does when he sees the prostitutes and the lepers and the rejects of society is he moves towards them. Do you see that? He moves towards them, that Jesus has compassion on those who are hurting. He draws near to us because he's gentle and lowly. And for those of you who were here last week, you heard a little bit about my story, but I wouldn't be here if this point wasn't true. I wouldn't be standing before you if Jesus didn't call the broken. It was in my darkest hour. It was in my furthest point of rebellion when I was covered in the most amount of sin that Jesus called me. I remember very clearly. I was in ninth grade and I hated God for what he allowed me to go through and what he allowed my family to go through. And I just felt so hopeless. As a ninth grade boy, I sat in my room and I sobbed and I sobbed and in desperation and anger, I cried out to God and he had compassion on me. And he reached out and he touched my heart and he said, sin no more. And my life was never the same. Friends, Jesus calls the broken. He calls the broken. So tonight, if you are broken, if you're struggling, if you're hurting, if you're overwhelmed, if you're anxious, if you're addicted, then lucky you. Jesus is calling. Come home. He calls the broken. He doesn't ask you to clean yourself up. It is actually your very brokenness that qualifies you to come. Second truth I want you to see tonight, it's not only that Jesus calls the broken, but Jesus died for the broken. Jesus died for the broken. Look at verse 29. He says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm gentle and lowly in heart and you will find a rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. What does that mean? All my church friends, we know what yokes are. We talk about it all the time. We really like talking about that in church. It's this big thing, sorry, big thing that goes on an ox and it rips up the ground behind them for planting seeds and whatnot. But what a lot of us don't know is that it's also a symbol of slavery. It represents the burden of captivity. So what Jesus is saying here when he's talking about his yoke being easy and his burden being light, he's saying that I know you are enslaved to sin. I know you're enslaved to sin, but I offer freedom from sin. I know you are incapable of bearing the weight of brokenness but I can and I will bear the unbearable for you. Do you know how he did that? Do you know why his yoke is easy? Do you know how he bore the weight of our sin? He was crucified. Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross for your sins and mine. Now why on earth would Jesus do that for the broken of all the people in the world, for the broken? Because he's gentle, he's lowly. He humbled himself to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. We see this in Philippians 2. Paul says, have this mind amongst yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God's a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. First Peter says this, he committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. And he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. I really don't want you guys to miss this. It's easy to miss this when we're talking about yokes and burdens. What he's saying is that Jesus Christ, the creator of all, who's being praised for all eternity by the most majestic beings, worshiped 24 seven, he stepped out of glory. He humbled himself to be spat upon and mocked and nailed to a tree for you and for me. He took our place so that you could not just know about him, but that you could have a relationship with him. And because of that cross, his burden is heavy. No, his burden's light. His yoke is easy. Friends, Jesus doesn't offer freedom through a heavy burden. He doesn't offer freedom through hard work or merit or earning or deserving, because if that was the case, we would all be hopeless. No, his yoke is easy. He offers freedom through simply believing, trusting him as Lord. Does anyone feel like they have to do good works for God to love them? I feel that sometimes. Does anyone feel more worthy when they go to church more? Does anyone feel like God loves you more when you read your Bible more? Yeah, we all have this temptation to earn the seat at the table of salvation. And we can't, we can't. That's just simply not what Jesus says. So stop laboring for your salvation. Stop trying to earn your righteousness. Stop worrying about what you cannot control. That is a heavy burden. Aren't you tired? Isn't that exhausting? Instead, take the yoke of Christ and experience what it's like to trust him and to experience true rest, which leads us to our final point. And Jesus calls the broken, he died for the broken. And lastly, Jesus gives rest to the broken. Jesus gives rest to the broken. Look back at the passage, verse 28. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you what? Rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find what? Rest.

In verse 28, I want you to notice that word give, that Jesus gives the gift of rest. There's no transaction, there's nothing to earn it, you simply receive it. I spent my entire life looking for something to give me rest and I promise you, let me save you some time, it is only found in Christ. It is only found in Christ. Who else can offer that? Like what boyfriend or girlfriend can offer you true rest? How many straight A's or impressive internships or years in the MA program can offer you true rest? How many bottles of alcohol or likes on social media can offer you true rest? Can I tell you a secret? They can't, they can't. Those things never will. Jesus Christ exclusively holds the keys to rest. You'll only find it in Him. A lot of you know this, that before I came to Bellevue, I was a student pastor and I loved student ministry. My favorite thing we did all year long was beach camp and y'all put on a pretty killer beach camp here. I've heard, I'm not gone, but this summer, come serve with me, I'll be there for sure. And beach camp was by far the hardest event we ever planned. It took so much to plan it, but it was all worth it. It was all worth it. There just seemed to be something about that week where our students and our leaders, they were just more open to the Spirit moving in their hearts. They're just more attuned to the Spirit and the preaching seemed to just be so much more transformative. And the worship was just so authentic and real and moving. And the recreation and competition and free time, it was so relational. There's just something special about that week. And so it was all worth it. But to pull off a week like that for 400 plus people, it took a village. It took a lot of people to come together. It took months and months and months of planning. And then once we planned it, we had to execute it. And we would always go down early. And we set up all the rooms. We set up our worship space. We set up all our recreation. And then the kids would finally roll in on those buses. And the second those buses got there, there was no sleep. Zero sleep. It just never happened. And they got off the bus and they're screaming. They're having the best time ever. And they come in and from that moment on, we wake up at the crack of dawn. And we get everything ready. And we pray over that day. And then the day hits. And it's physically, spiritually, and emotionally exhausting. And then we get up super late, having deep conversations, helping guide where the spirit is moving people. We get to bed in the wee hours of the night. And then we wake up again at the crack of dawn. And we do that over and over and over. And then to put the cherry on top, very last day of camp. I don't know if y'all do this, but we do this. It's stupid because of the rest part. But we, for senior night, me and normally my other minister, we take all our seniors out for a senior night. And after the worship, after the late night, so we're leaving about midnight. And we are out until the middle of the night, sometimes once the sun gets up. And I just want you to know, there has never been, there's never been a time in my life where I am more tired than the last night of camp. Normally because it doesn't end until really the next day for us. And there's just this moment. And there's this moment when I finally get home. And I lay down in my bed. And I just know that the marathon of camp is finally over. And I can breathe and I can rest. Friends, that is what it feels like when you stop trying to be a good person. When you stop trying to earn Jesus's love. When you stop trying to control everything. When you stop pretending everything's okay. And you come as you are broken and you surrender to Jesus. You will find rest. Friends, that's what it means to enjoy Jesus's gentle and lowly heart. Not just know it, but enjoy it. To find rest in him. To come as you are, beaten, bruised, broken and burdened. To give Jesus the joy of healing your soul. Let that be tonight. Let that be tonight. I don't know where you are. I don't know most of your spiritual lives. Actually, I don't know any of your spiritual lives. Maybe Preston, we got to have coffee this morning, which is super fun. And he's going to Poland, which is okay, pretty cool. But I don't know where you are. I don't know if you love Jesus or you hate Jesus. I don't know if you have church hurt. I don't know if this is your first time or you've been here, you grew up in Bellevue. But I just want you to know, we are all in some sense, shape or form broken. And we are all searching for what can only be found in Christ. You don't have to wait. You don't have to wait. You can have that invitation right now. Right now. So one thing I want us to do, and we'll do this every week, maybe, most likely. We call 120, take 120 seconds, it's two minutes for those math whizzes. And we sit and we just are in silence. And the band's going to come up and they might play in the background, but you ask yourself two questions. You speak to the Lord and say, God, what are you telling me? And what am I going to do about it? What are you telling me? And what am I going to do about it? So if you would take the next two minutes and just pray.