Rev. Jesus Christopher Olalekan O. Alawode
Matthew 11: 28-30 “Come to Me, all you who labour and 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 find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Jesus Christ is peace, joy, happiness, good health, life after death (John 11: 25-26), progress and sufficiency. For you to know more about Him requires that you should to get closer to Him; and it is only by prayer and reading the Bible that you will know more of Him. This is the more reason why He is inviting you and I to come to Him. Our knowledge about Jesus Christ has nothing to do with how long we have become a Christian, or even if we were born into a Christian home. The Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians writes, “May the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all” 2 Thessalonians 3: 16. Jesus Christ is the only source of obtaining peace, which comes from God. Jesus makes Himself available to us whenever we are overwhelmed with sorrow, pain, and loss, loneliness and heartbroken. The Book of Hebrews writes, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathise with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” Hebrews 4: 15-16. Jesus Christ is God’s sustain grace – the only One trustworthy who knows how to comfort us. The Book of Psalm writes, “Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help” Psalm 146: 3. Jesus Christ invites us to come to Him; not only by prayer but to rest peacefully in His presence every time. Mary the mother of Jesus, Jesus and His disciples were at a marriage ceremony at the Cana of Galilee. It happened that the celebrant found himself in an embarrassing situation – there was no more wine to serve the Invitees. The Bible writes, “And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to (Jesus) Him, “They have no wine.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not come.” His mother did not because of that shut up her mouth, the Bible writes, “His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” Jesus saved the servants from the embarrassment of the day. The Bible writes in John 2: 1-10, “Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water”, which they did. The Bible writes further, “And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” The result testifies to Jesus Christ as the Source of peace, joy, happiness, and sufficiency.
Obedience is one important criterion for coming to Jesus; the mother of Jesus says, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” When you come to Jesus Christ do not come trusting your own wisdom or skill, and do not come as a stranger, but as a friend and a co- heir because of His love for you. Your coming to Jesus involves surrendering all the things that can make you unworthy; your lifestyles and worldly attachments cannot accompany you to Jesus. The Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians writes, “Casting down Arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ” 2 Corinthians 10: 5. Jesus Christ teaches us obedience by the way He lived His life. In the Book of John 5: 30 He says “I can of mine own self do nothing as I hear, I judge; and My judgement is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” The Bible story of the Centurion teaches faith and humility as important criteria for coming to Jesus. The centurion is well known for his good deed in his community; his emissaries that he sent to Jesus spoke well of him. The Bible writes, “And when they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one of whom He should do this was deserving, for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue” this did not get into the centurion’s head. When Jesus was going with the emissaries to the house of the Centurion, the Bible writes, “And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say a word, and my servant will be healed” Jesus was impressed, the Bible writes, “When Jesus heard these things He marvelled at him, and said to the crowd that followed Him, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel” The story ended well, the Bible writes, “And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick” Luke 7: 110. This story reveals that is not who or what you are on earth that matters to Jesus Christ, but your faith matters.
Jesus Christ’s invitation to all who care to honour it requires one important and indispensable step. Jesus says, “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” Matthew 11: 29-30. Everyone has his own yoke, which means the cross that weighs us down, but honouring Jesus Christ’s invitation will enable us to throw our heavy yoke aside and replace it with that of Jesus Christ, which is light. Jesus Christ had already paid the penalty by sundering His life on the Cross. Taking His Cross upon you will bring peace into your mind. It is when you are close to Jesus Christ that you are sure when you call upon Him He will surely answer you. There are two sisters and their brother Lazarus who were on a very good term with Jesus. One day Lazarus was sick to death, his two sisters sent an urgent message to Jesus to come and pray for him. Jesus received the message but for a good reason He did not go immediately. Lazarus had died and had been buried before His arrival. Jesus Christ uses every issue of our life to build our faith; He said to His disciples even before He went to answer the invitation of the two sisters “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him” John 11: 1-15. By this time the two sisters did not believe that their brother could come to life anymore. The Bible writes, “And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, Lord, come and see” John 11: 16-36. The bereaved sisters and the people standing with them weren’t expecting what Jesus did. On arrival at the burial ground where Lazarus was buried, the Bible writes, “Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Whenever you are praying for any miracle in your situation, you need to first remove the ‘stone’ in your mind. Jesus Christ first took some time to give some tutorial on ‘belief’ before He called Lazarus out of the grave. The Bible writes, “And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth, Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go” John 11: 37-44. The grave clothes symbolises the flesh and worldly things that are withholding many Christians from receiving their miracles from God – “Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us” Hebrews 12: 1. With you in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ in you, ‘delay is not denial’.
Jesus Christ is the answer to prayers that had been said before His birth; the Bible writes, “And it will be said in that day: “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation” Isaiah 25: 9. Jesus Christ makes Himself available for us whenever we feel helpless. The Bible tells the story of windstorm that arose when Jesus Christ was asleep in the boat; the Bible writes, “But He was in the boat asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” The story goes further, “Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.” The story of windstorm teaches Believers some lessons: (1) Whenever you encounter any problem beyond your wisdom and power, turn to Jesus Christ; He is the only solution (2) Jesus Christ has power over every problem in life (3) Jesus Christ solves problems from the source not on the peripheral; He commanded the sea, not the windstorm (4) Jesus Christ has incredible authority that is beyond human comprehension. When you are in a dilemma, or in a quandary, take your problem to Jesus Christ; this exactly is what Rebecca did. The Bible writes, “Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his plea, and Rebecca his wife conceived. But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.” The Bible tells us the good outcome, which gave her peace of mind – Genesis 25: 21-23. Prayer does not replace the modern technology and science; but it is helpful to pray before taking any step. Prayer will guide you to the appropriate expert in your health issues, and it will help you to find peace in your mind – “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in YAH, the Lord is everlasting strength” Isaiah 26: 3-4.
Jesus Christ’s name is the most powerful name on earth, and in heaven. The Bible writes, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” Philippians 2: 9-11. The demon recognises and honours the name of Jesus Christ; and he is able to identify and shame whoever is unworthy that calls the name of Jesus Christ to do miracle. The Bible writes, “Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches. Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?” Acts 19: 11-15. The evil spirit dealt seriously with the fake Believers and it became big news throughout the land – “This became known to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified” Acts 19: 12-17. The evil spirit must have noticed two things that were obvious in the fake Believers: (1) Lack of boldness in their command – “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and grace and find grace in time of need” (2) The evil spirit did not see them as new creation – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” 2 Corinthians 5: 17.
*Thank you so much for taking the time to read this message; the Lord will give you good reward for giving His word priority in your schedule. Please read your Bible to ascertain the relevance of all the quoted verses to the message. Have a peaceful and joyful week.
