Matthew 11:25-30

 ²⁵ At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. ²⁶ Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. ²⁷ All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. ²⁸ Come to Me, all you 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.”

Commentary

Vs. 25-26 At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. ²⁶ Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. 

The mysteries of God in Christ, indeed the salvation of God through Christ does not belong to the “wise and prudent”, but rather to mere babes who in childlike faith seeing their own need for the Lord Jesus Christ repent and believe in Him. For it is of God the Father to reveal His truths to those who are mere babes in the worlds eyes, just as He sees fit (John 12:37-40; Rom. 9:18; 11:7-8 etc.). Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ is not at all set back by mankind’s pride and unbelief, instead He thanks God the Father who knowing the hearts everyone hides the deep things that Christ declares from the “wise” and prudent”, and instead reveals them to babes, to everyone who like a nursing child is not only dependent upon God, but also looks to God for all that we need to know and understand about Him.

Vs.27 “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” 

All things have now been delivered by God the Father into Christ the Son’s hand. There is then nothing that has been, or now is, or will be, that will not be judged by Him, but also ruled by Him, because God the Father created all things through Him and for Him (Col.1:16-17). That no one knows the Son except the Father is that no one knows the Son in their most Perfect Divine relationship as the Father does, just as no one knows the Father just as the Son knows Him again in their most Perfect and Divine relationship where nothing is not known about each other. Now since all things have been delivered into the Son’s s hand only those whom the Son wills to reveal the Father too can know the Father. For as no one can come to the Father except through the Son, no one can know the Father apart from the Son (John 14:6-7).

Vs. 28-30 ²⁸ Come to Me, all you 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.”

The Lord Jesus Christ now invites all who labor and are heavy laden to come to Him and have rest. For the Lord Jesus Christ does not heap up useless and meaningless religious ordinances on His disciples, nor does He instill guilt and shame keeping people in state of confusion, anger, and despair, instead by His sacrificial death on the cross for all our sins He takes our burdens away. Freeing us from not only religious servitude, but also and more importantly from sin and guilt's servitude. Simply stated the Lord Jesus Christ is not like any other “religious” leader, for He is the Son of God who brings not only remission of all our sins and everlasting life the moment we repent and believe in Him, receiving Him for ourselves, but by His Holy Spirit rebirth and regeneration of our Persons He transforms us within, making us new creations in Christ, giving us new desires and new dreams, with new visions and new goals, but that’s getting ahead of where it all starts, for it all starts with by first coming to Him in discipleship as He says and to us all: “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 the Lord Jesus Christ’s Person, indeed His very Nature in our Redemption is that of being gentle and lowly, as the Scripture says of Him: “A bruised reed He will not break, a smoking flax He will not quench…” ^{Isaiah 42:3} because as the Scripture also foretold it would Jesus Christ who would suffer and die for all our sins on the Cross so that through Him we could be healed from and forgiven all of our sins and transgressions and have God's everlasting peace restored to us (see Isaiah 53:5). Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ invites us all to take His yoke upon us, and learn from Him, (that is learn about His Person in His Gospel and from His Word) and not from men. For Jesus is gentle and lowly in heart, and when anyone comes to know Him they will find rest for their souls. Therefore, receive the Lord Jesus Christ into your hearts and lives (Rev. 3:20) and learn from Him, following Him in discipleship, for He is gentle and lowly and you will find rest for your souls!

Scripture Quotations

The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Matthew 11:20-24

²⁰ Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: ²¹ “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. ²² But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. ²³ And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. ²⁴ But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”

Commentary

In this "modern" and "civilized" and "enlightened" world where repentance from what God calls and condemns as sin is often viewed as evil, The Lord Jesus Christ’s Warning here needs to be heeded by us all who do fear God, because God reserves His wrath for those who don’t repent and believe!

Now the cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida were Northern cities of Galilee, Chorazin was located a couple of miles north of Capernaum and was infamous for the quality of it’s grains and wheat which were imported to Jerusalem for the Temple sacrifices there; while it was near Bethsaida that the Lord Jesus fed the five thousand (Luke 9:10-17), as well as healing a blind man there (Mark 8:22). But given the Lord’s Words here there must have been even many more mighty works done in these areas of Galilee as John makes it clear at the end of His Gospel that not every mighty work done by the Lord was recorded for us and so the Lord’s condemnation of them is just, because as He says the ancient pagan cities of Tyre and Sidon if they had seen His mighty works done in them would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes! Therefore, the Lord Jesus says it will be more tolerable in the judgment of Tyre and Sidon than for Chorazin and Bethsaida because they never had the opportunity to see the mighty works of the Lord Jesus Christ as they did. Think then too how we in the Western and “civilized” world have long had God’s Word and Gospel freely available to us all. In print, in media, and now in electronic devices right at our fingertips and yet for all that it largely goes ignored by people seeking to satisfy their souls with vain and empty and often vile things and images which cannot profit or deliver them. There will then be a reckoning for all the opportunities that we all have had to repent and believe and yet failed to respond to God too when He called us back to Himself. Having then addressed Chorazin and Bethsaida the Lord Jesus turns His denunciation to Capernaum, the largest and most influential city of Northern Galilee. “And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. ²⁴ But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.” ^{Vs. 23-24} Now Capernaum was the place where Jesus centred His ministry after His rejection from His hometown in Nazareth and so it was in and Capernaum that Jesus healed the centurions servant (Matt. 8:5-13), and the paralyzed man who was lowered down to Him by his four friends (Mark 2:1-12), also Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law when she was sick (Matt. 8:14-15), and the nobleman’s son (John 4:46-54). Not to mention it was near Capernaum that the Lord Jesus gave His bread of life sermon after feeding the five thousand in the wilderness. And so, Capernaum and the citizens of it was a city that had ample of opportunities to repent. And yet for all that the Lord Jesus did and preached there they were unmoved. Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ says that even Sodom that wicked ancient city that God destroyed along with Gomorrah with fire and brimstone will find it more tolerable on the Day of Judgment than Capernaum, because if the Lord Jesus had done His mighty works in it, it would’ve so moved them that it would’ve remained until this day! How about you will you be moved out of your sins and complacency to repent and to seek the Lord while He may be found so that you may salvation for yourself (Isaiah 55:6), or will you be like they were unmoved and unbelieving until God’s wrath comes. Don’t be that way! Instead consider everything the Lord Jesus Christ does and says and then by faith ask Him for salvation, seek Him for all that you need, for all who ask receive and all who seek Him will find Him (Matt. 7:7).

Scripture Quotations

The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Matthew 11:16-19

¹⁶ “But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, ¹⁷ and saying: ‘We played the flute for you, And you did not dance; We mourned to you, And you did not lament.’ ¹⁸ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ ¹⁹ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”

Commentary

The Lord Jesus Christ now declares the dissatisfaction of that generation. A generation who could not be made pleased with either John or Himself for they had their own ideas and expectations about the Messiah’s arrival. Just as there are people in every generation who cannot be satisfied with them, who instead have their own ideas and desires of what our Lord and Savior (essentially what God) should look and be like. And so, with John the Baptist they found fault not only with his radical declarations, but specifically with his radical austere lifestyle, which to the unbelieving, complacent, vain, worldly and carnal caused them only to say of John “he has a demon.” Conversely the Lord Jesus Christ came eating and drinking, living just like them in every way except Jesus kept Himself from all sin, but in seeking to reach sinners Jesus ate and drink with them, just as He did when He called Matthew (see Matt.9:9-13), something which the devout religious Jews totally shunned doing and took great offense at their Messiah doing. Therefore, when they saw Jesus doing so they only said of Him, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

Which is not only an absolutely blasphemous and slanderous remark but what they did is just what those who do not believe and will not receive the love of the truth always do, they always blasphemy and defame the Holy One of God. Just as they will always find a way to not believe the Son of God the Lord Jesus Christ, for they will not receive Him or His Words into their hearts, persons and lives. Therefore, in the face of such evil the Lord Jesus Christ say’s: “But wisdom is justified by her children.” That is through God’s perfect plan, ways, and means not only is the Kingdom of heaven come, but everything that John and the Lord Jesus Christ said and did not only vindicates them, but also vindicates everyone in every generation who repents and believes in Him, who will be not only be transformed by the Holy Spirit of the Lord, but we will be saved from the wrath to come by our faith in Him.  Something that is available to you as well to become a partaker of the Divine Nature by Holy Spirit birth the moment you believe (Eph. 1:13-14). and thus, you too can have remission of all your sins and everlasting life by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore don’t delay be reconciled to God today!

Scripture Quotations

The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Matthew 11:7-15

As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? ⁸ But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft clothing ? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. ⁹ But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. ¹⁰ For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ ¹¹ “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. ¹² And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. ¹³ For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. ¹⁴ And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. ¹⁵ He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

Commentary

Vs. 7-8 ⁷ As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? ⁸ But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.

The Lord Jesus having answered John the Baptists disciples about Himself, now turns to the crowds and says to them, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?”

“A reed shaken by the wind?” the implication being that if the people thought John was just another person claiming to be someone or something and yet when faced with opposition or persecution or possible arrest would quickly vacillate and change his tone or message they were wrong.

“A man clothed in soft garments?” John the Baptist was not a worldly preacher, he was not a man who made himself rich by declaring his message. If the crowds wanted to see a well set and cultured preacher John was not their man.

 Vs. 9-10 ⁹ But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. ¹⁰   For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’

The Lord Jesus knowing that there were those who only went out to see John the Baptist in the wilderness preaching and baptizing because they wanted to see a real-life prophet now emphases that going to see John the Baptist’s person in action was not the point of John’s preaching. For though John was a prophet of God, he was more than a prophet, “For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ The Lord Jesus Christ then in declaring John the Baptist to be the Messenger who was sent before His face is citing Malachi 3:1 a passage which declared the coming of God’s Messenger to announce the Messiah (or Christ) to Israel before His arrival to them. And so in declaring John the Baptist to be such the Lord Jesus Christ makes it clear that John the Baptist was God’s Messenger sent before Him, to prepare the people of Israel to receive their (and our) Lord and Savior and King.

Vs. 11 “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

Since God sent John as His Messenger to declare the Lord’s having come to Israel, there is among those born of women no one risen who is greater than John the Baptist; but not because of John’s person; but only because of God bestowing on John the greatest honor and privilege that any mortal can have, and that is being chosen by Him to declare and reveal His Son. Now as fortunate as John was, the Lord Jesus Christ also says, “but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Greater because all of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ have not only been chosen by God to be His elect children, but we have also been sanctified and justified and purified by Lord Jesus Christ’s Person, and thus we will forever dwell in and with God the Father in the Kingdom of heaven! Something which John the Baptist at that time had not yet experienced. Therefore, truly even the least of the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he, for to be in the Kingdom of heaven is the absolute highest and greatest honor and privilege of all!

Vs. 12-15 ¹² And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. ¹³ For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. ¹⁴ And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. ¹⁵ He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”

From it’s very inception here on earth, when it was first heralded by John the Baptist right up until the Lord Jesus Christ’s return, the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and will continue to suffer violence because the violent take it (not enter it) by force. And so, from the Scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees along with all the Temple authorities, to Herod and his disciples, to the Jews themselves, and then the Roman Empire, to now the unbelieving world, the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, for as the Word of God declares it will suffer violence until the Lord’s return, just as the violent take it force. On large scale think the later “holy Roman Empire” which failing to destroy it from outside, took it by force and corrupted it within. Nonetheless the Kingdom of heaven will prevail (see Rev. 17:1-18, vs.6; 18:1-8, 21-24, 19:1-16 etc.).

“For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.”

The reason all the prophets and the law prophesied until John is because John the Baptist was God’s Messenger sent before the face of His Son to herald the Lord Jesus Christ’s coming to Israel, and thus with the Lord Jesus Christ the Kingdom of heaven in fulfilment of the law and prophets has now come, and now is to be preached, for it is through the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone that one enters the Kingdom of heaven by faith in His Person.  

 “And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. ¹⁵ He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Now Malachi the prophet also declared that before the Christ’s coming to Israel Elijah the prophet would be sent to them (Malachi 4:5-6). Now the Malachi passage is also an ominous passage, because attached with it is the warning of the dreadful Day of the Lord, which is a Day of judgment. Therefore, Jesus is declaring that John the Baptist is Elijah who is to come is warning them all that failure to believe John, and thus receive Jesus as their Messiah and King, is a failure that would result in that generations own judgment.

Scripture Quotations

The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.