11 May The heart of Christ

Australians are more anxious than ever. Beyond Blue reported that over 3 million Australians experienced anxiety, with mental health conditions being the leading cause of disability among young people.

One of the contributing factors for this pandemic is the culture we live in that is obsessed with performance and self-image.

Even as Christians, we often carry this performance mentality into our relationship with Jesus.

• Subconsciously believing that we need to maintain a certain spiritual standard for Him to be pleased with us.
• Many of us end up relating to Jesus not as a compassionate Saviour, but as a harsh big boss—One who is quick to notice our failures.
• When we fail, we assume Jesus is disappointed with us.
• When we are tired, we feel ashamed.

But what if our assumptions are wrong?

• What if Jesus is not who we fear He might be?
• What if Jesus is far more tender, patient, and welcoming than we dare believe?

Tonight, I want to invite us to rethink who Jesus truly is—not based on our guilt, fear, or cultural conditioning, but based on what He says about Himself in the Scripture.

We know what Jesus did to save us, but do we know who He really is as a person?

Do we know His heart?

1. What is Jesus’ Heart Toward Us?
2. Why do we struggle?
3. How does this change the way we live?

I. What is Jesus’ Heart Toward Us?

We all want to be accepted and loved, who doesn’t!

• So, we worked hard on our self-image.
• And when we fail, and sin against God—and we either tell ourselves: “I can do better!” OR “I am not enough. I’ve let people down. I’ve disappointed Jesus.”
  • We imagined Jesus looking down on our lives, and sighed in disappointment.

But, do you know on the Cross, Jesus didn’t just deal with our sin—He dealt with the lies we tell ourselves about, who He really is, His heart?

Jesus says:

Matthew 11:28-30 (ESV)

²⁸ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ 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. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

A. Gentle and Lowly in Heart

In eighty-nine chapters across the four Gospels, we are told many things about Jesus—his ministry, power, wisdom, death, and resurrection. But…

• Only once in all four Gospels does Jesus describe His heart to us: Gentle and Lowly.

Did you hear what Jesus said about his heart?

• You say: “I am not enough. I’ve disappointed Jesus.”
• He says: “For I am gentle and lowly in heart.”

This is important,
because what Jesus says about his heart changes how we approach him, especially when we are at our weakest and at the lowest point of our lives.

His Heart Revealed

 

What we have here is, Jesus opens his very heart to us, and what we find is not what we might expect.

His very heart is…

Not “austere and demanding,”

Not “exalted and dignified,”

Not even “joyful and generous,” (though He is)

But “Gentle and lowly.”

These words describe the posture Jesus takes toward us, not just what he occasionally feels, but who he always is.

• The Heart

When the Bible speaks of the heart, it is not talking only about our emotional life, but of the very core of everything we do.

• It is what gets us out of bed in the morning and what we dream about as we drift to sleep.
• It is our motivational headquarters.

Biblically speaking, the heart is not part of who we are, but the centre of who we are.

• It is what defines us, directs us, and drives everything we do.
• It is who we are.

So, when Jesus revealed his heart, He is showing what is most true about Him,

• He exposes his innermost being,
  • And we find that he is gentle & lowly.

 

• “I am gentle…”

The Greek word for “gentle” (πραΰς) occurs only three other times in the NT.

1. In the beatitude, “the meek will inherit the earth” (Matt 5:5)
2. In the prophecy, quoting Zechariah 9:9, that Jesus the king “is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey” (Matt 21:5)
3. In Peter’s encouragement to wives to nurture more than anything else “the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit” (1 Pet 3:4)

Meek. Humble. Gentle.
This heart of Jesus is a consistent posture of Christ’s heart toward His people.

Dane Ortlund:
“Jesus is not trigger-happy. Not harsh, reactionary, or easily exasperated. He is the most understanding person in the universe. The posture most natural to him is not a pointed finger but open arms.”

 

• “…and lowly…”

The meaning of the word “lowly” (ταπεινός) overlaps with that of “gentle,”

These two words together, “gentle” and “lowly” — lowly gentleness — communicate a single reality about Jesus’ heart.

To say Jesus is lowly means he is accessible—there are no barriers, no moral hoops to jump through to get to Him. Even helpless, messy children can come to Him.

• Jesus is the King of kings, sitting in all his glories at the right hand of God
• Yet, there is no one in the history of mankind who is more approachable than Jesus.
• Not even your own spouse or family.

 

Jesus doesn’t ask you to unburden yourself first before coming to Him.

Jesus says, “Come to me… and I will give you rest.”

• His rest is a gift! Not a transaction. Not earned.

• “…in heart…”

Lowly gentleness is not how Jesus sometimes acts towards those who come to Him.

Gentleness is who he is.

It is His heart.

This means, Jesus cannot un-gentle himself toward His own who come to Him.

To say Jesus is gentle is to say He welcomes the weary.
To say Jesus is lowly is to say He is accessible.

You don’t need first to fix yourself to come to Him. Your very burden is what qualifies you to come.

B. Christ’s Yoke Is Kind

When you come to Jesus, what do you get in return? His yoke.

Jesus says, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt 11:30)

 

Jesus is not saying life is free of pain or hardship. That is not what He meant by easy.

• Elsewhere in the Bible, the word “easy” (χρηστός) is translated as “kind”:

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32 ESV)

A yoke is a heavy wooden crossbar that is put on oxen to force them to drag farming equipment through the field.

• Jesus’ words are kind of an irony—
• He is saying that His yoke is a non-yoke, for His yoke is kindness.
• And His burden is a non-burden.

What does this mean? How can a burden be non-burden?

• Jesus’ burden to His followers, is like a helium to a balloon.
• His burden lifts you up, not weighs you down!

 

This evening, some of you are carrying heavy burdens.

And Jesus is inviting you to hand them over to Him in exchange for his yoke.

 

Would you do that?

Would you let Him?

II. Why Do We Struggle to Believe This?

Why is it so hard to believe this?

• One reason is because we don’t trust people so easily, do we?
• We don’t forgive so easily.

But there is a deeper and more serious issue—and that is because we are sinful people. Yes, you. Just because someone else’s sin is bigger than you make you any less sinful.

The apostle Paul says:

Ephesians 2:1-3 (ESV)

¹ And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

A. Dead in Sin, Not Just Messed Up

We often downplay our sin: “I messed up,” “I made a mistake.”

But Scripture says we were dead. Not just weak, or even sick, but we are spiritually lifeless, in love with our sins.

B. Rich in Mercy

But here is the Good News…

Immediately after telling us that we were all dead in sin, Paul writes:

            Ephesians 2:4-6 (ESV)

⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus

God is not just merciful.
He isn’t middle-class in mercy. He is a billionaire. His mercy is not reluctant but lavish.

Thomas Goodwin:
“Jesus is the spring of all mercy… It is natural to Him… It is his nature and disposition, because when he shows mercy, he does it with his whole heart.”

Here are some great truths about Christ’s mercy:

• Jesus does not become merciful after you repent. He already is merciful.
• Jesus does not hesitate to forgive. He is delighted to forgive.

Jesus is mercy in motion. Grace in the flesh, always rushing toward the guilty.

Mercy is who He is.

• Don’t miss this Because IF mercy was only something Jesus had, He could run out of mercy.
• But because it is who He is, He cannot stop being merciful.

 

He pours out more, not less!

Now, some of you understand that, and you say:

“But I have failed too many times. I have squandered His mercy. Surely, Jesus is tired of me and my old excuses.”

The second part of verse 4 reads: “because of the great love with which he loved us…”

 

God’s love is not longsuffering or patience, though He does forebear with us,

His love is something deeper, it is active.

• His love surges forward all the more when His beloved is threatened, even if it is a result of His beloved’s own foolishness.
• Just imagine an earthly father’s love that rises up within him when he sees his child accused or afflicted, even if justly accused or afflicted.

You may have come to Jesus for mercy before, but now when you sin again, you are getting more and more hesitant to go to Him.

 

But the Bible tells us that,

Jesus doesn’t withhold mercy from repeat offenders.

 

Do you know what Jesus does with those who have squandered in mercy repeatedly?

→ He pours out more mercy!

III. How Does This Change the Way We Live?

There is one category that we don’t often think of when we think about Jesus, and that is his friendship.

Yes, Jesus is King.

Yes, He is the Saviour.

But don’t normally think of Jesus as our friend.

A. Jesus, the Friend of Sinners

But let’s read this…

(Matthew 11:19 ESV)

“The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

Jesus wore the insult “a friend of sinners” like a badge of honour. He didn’t merely tolerate sinners; He sought their company.

People say, you can see the truth about a person by the friends they keep. That’s why you will only find rich and famous people at billionaires ‘ birthday parties.

But….

Jesus’ closest friends were not the impressive, the influential, or the righteous. They were tax collectors, prostitutes, doubters, betrayers, and sinners. And they loved being with Him.

Luke 15:1 says, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.”

Why?

Sinners are drawn to Jesus, because…

1. He enjoys spending time with them.
2. He welcomed those others rejected.
3. He made the unlovely feel loved.

The two groups of people Jesus is accused of befriending are those who cannot stay away from Him.

• When others hold them at arms’ length, Jesus pulls them into His heart.

 

 

But, there is a limit to friendships!

 

Even with our best friends, we aren’t always comfortable sharing about our lives—we hide our deepest secret from them.

• We like our friends, we even love
• We enjoy going on holiday with them, but at the deepest heart level, we couldn’t really entrust ourselves completely to them.

All our human friendships have a limit, even with our best friends and our spouse.

This is why we are often suspicious of others, and why we don’t forgive freely.

• But… What if you have a friend who has no limit?

 

You have!

 

The Gospel message is this:

In Jesus, we have a friend who will always let us in, and never turn us away.

Tim Keller says,

“In Jesus, we have a friend who will always let us in and never let us down.”

Only in Jesus, do we have a friend whose embrace does not strengthen or weaken depending on how good we are as a friend.

Richard Sibbes describes Jesus friendship like this:

“As Jesus’ friendship is sweet, so it is constant in all conditions…. If other friends fail, as friends may fail, yet this friend will never fail us.”

 

Jesus is not a good friend because you are. He is a good friend precisely because you are not.

B. Never Turned You Away

In Revelation 3, Jesus says to a group of Christians who are “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked”, v17):

“I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

(Revelation 3:20 ESV)

Even when we feel wretched and ashamed, Jesus is knocking—not to scold, but to share a meal with us.

Jonathan Edwards explains the reason Jesus came is so that “He might be near to you and might be your companion.”

Jesus doesn’t just walk beside the clean and strong—He is the true and faithful travel companion for those who are weak and weary.

Why is this so hard for us to believe?

Despite these beautiful truths, many of us still struggle. Why?

• Because we think grace is transactional.
• Because we think mercy has a limit.
• Because our hearts are proud, and we want to earn His love.
  • It feels good to be able to bring something to Jesus.

We are prone to forget His gentleness and so we run from the only One who truly understands us.

Jesus died on the Cross for you—At the Cross is where His heart is most clearly revealed.

• He did not go to the Cross reluctantly.
• He went willingly.
• Not for the deserving, but for the dead in sin.

Jesus didn’t regret saving you then. He won’t let you go now.

He is not tired of you. He delights when you come to Him.

Let me leave you with what the Bible says of who Jesus really is:

• He is gentle and lowly in heart.
• He is rich in mercy.
• He is the friend of sinners.

And He is standing at the door of your heart at this very moment…

• Would you open your heart for Him?
• Would you come to Him?
• Would you rest in Him?

 

 

 

Discussion questions:

1. What struck you the most from the sermon?
2. When we sin against God, we either tell ourselves: “I can do better!” OR “I am not enough. I’ve let people down. I’ve disappointed Jesus.” Which one is your response and why?
3. Why do you struggle to believe Jesus’s heart for you?
4. What does it mean for Jesus to be a friend of sinners?
5. How does the gospel encourage you to bring your burden to Christ?