Take My Yoke Upon You
The Church was birthed on the Jewish festival of Shavuot (Pentecost). This festival was celebrated fifty days after Jesus was placed in the grave that could not hold Him. Ten days earlier, Yeshua had ascended into heaven vowing to return. Until the day of His re-appearing, Jesus’s disciples were tasked with teaching His interpretation and application of Scripture around the world, beginning in Jerusalem.
Within a couple of decades, Paul arrived in Corinth. What did he find? Believers in Jesus who should have been united in Messiah’s teaching, wearing His yoke, jockeying for personal position. They identified not with Jesus, but on who they thought to be most prestigious teacher. In Corinth, disciples submitted to the yoke of Messiah Jesus in unity were nowhere to be found.
“Each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul,’ and ‘I of Apollos,’ and ‘I of Cephas,’ and ‘I of Christ.’ Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he, or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one would say you were baptized in my name” – 1 Corinthians 1:12-15.
Jesus taught His first disciples His own interpretation of Scripture. His disciples took His yoke upon themselves and learned how to pass it on to others. They did not have His permission to spin their own interpretations from Scripture anymore than the disciples of Hillel, Shemai, or Gamaliel did.
This leads us to important questions. Was there a national expectation of the coming Messiah among the Jews of Jesus’ time? Did Yeshua’s resume meet the expectation of those who were searching for Him, waiting for Him?
When Yeshua stepped into the Jordan River, asking Yochanan the Immerser to baptize Him, John knew who Jesus was. He had been looking for Him, as had others among the Remnant of Israel. The Remnant of Israel interpreted the Scriptures in the way God intended, on a consistently literal basis. Because of their approach to the Bible, the followers of John the Baptist had made a promise to follow the one John would identify as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” They knew He would come, because of their own rock-solid belief in the Messianic Hope spoken of in the Old Testament.
Wouldn’t you have loved to have been with Andrew and the other disciple (John) when Jesus stopped with them for the night after Yochanan identified Yeshua as the One they were waiting for? The next day, they met Philip who found Nethanael. Phillip proclaimed “We have found Him of whom Moses and also the Prophets wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” – John 1:45. Luke at Luke 24:13-53. After Jesus rose from the dead, during the forty days preceding Shavuot, Yeshua explained that His presence and ministry among them was the literal fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies from Genesis to Malachi.
“Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things’” – Luke 24:44-48.
What then were the “traditions” Messiah’s disciples taught after Pentecost (Acts 2)? The Apostle John said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” John’s traditions, and those of all of Jesus’ other disciples were the interpretations of the Old Testament received directly from their Rabbi.
Take a few minutes now and watch the first installment of our series on the Life of Messiah. This brief video explains the background to the 1st Century world of the Jewish people living in Israel, the place where heaven met earth in the person of Jesus Christ.
Where did Messiah’s teaching come from? Jesus never said or did anything that He did not get directly from His Father. For a little exercise compare Isaiah 50:4 with John 14:7-10.
Let’s stop and think about the implications of what Paul found in Corinth against the backdrop of our own time. Nothing has changed. Two thousand years removed from Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, His Bride (the Church) is more fractured and splintered than ever. At a time when our common witness in the world could be the most effective, believers are more likely to quote any number of supposed spiritual authorities rather than the words of our Rabbi Jesus.
For the grand finale of this edition, here is the big SO WHAT? Are you easily identifiable as a disciple of Messiah Jesus? Whose interpretation of Scripture do you quote? What is the ministry strategy you have adopted?
Rob Bell
John Hagee
Joel Osteen
John Piper
Chuck Swindoll
Augustine
Charles Ryrie
Earl Radmacher
John Nelson Darby
John Wesley
John Ortberg
Arnold Fruchtenbaum
John Calvin
Martin Luther
Francis Chan
Jesus
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” – Matthew 11:27-29.
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Wow…..
Amen brother! Bring it. I have caught myself quoting Mr. Piper, who was quoting Jesus and I said to myself, “Why don’t I just say “Jesus said”
The root of the problem is listening to a variety of teachers instead of simply reading the bible.
Noted. I WILL NEVER NEVER NEVER quote Arlie Francis again!
(tongue in cheek)
Jesus’ yoke and burden was light because a) he had no material things to weigh Him down and b) He had no sin which would also weigh Him down. Jesus obeyed His Heavenly Father out of His deep love and commitment to the Father’s will. Jesus also wants us to love and obey Him freely and willingly out of love, not demand or strict and rigid rules. Jesus loves us freely; He wants us to love Him freely. Jesus said three times in John 14, “He who loves me obeys My commandments.” Love by its very essence is to be given to another freely. God freely showed His love for us by sending His only Beloved Son to die for our sin. Jesus was a Living Sacrifice for sin. He asks us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice for Him….freely and willingly out of love not through Law or demand.
Very well said.
This is a very interesting topic as in Judaism when a young Jewish male received his Bar mitzvah its called putting on the yoke. As now he becomes a Son of the commandments and its his duty to uphold the law of God. He is responsible for his own sins after this point. But Yeshua is saying this yoke is to heavy for you, “but my yoke is easy and my burden is light” .In other words there is no longer a need to keep the Mosaic Law with all its difficulties and self effort and legalism, because I have made a way for you and its a way of love justice and mercy, and whats more it will guarantee you salvation free of mitzvahs. You can’t earn it its a gift from God.
“As a follower of Jesus today, whose yoke are you carrying around and espousing?”
There was a time, a recent time when I was guilty of parroting Calvin, Pink among contemporaries like Piper, Fruchtenbum and others. Ironically, it was Dr. Fruchtenbaum’s lessons on hermeneutics that finally broke me of this and forced me to stand on the Written Word of God alone.