January 28, 2024
Matthew 11:25–30

Title: The Rest, Authority, And Character Of The Christ

Last week we saw that Matthew recorded Jesus rebuking His generation for its unbelief. He then turned harsh denunciation towards the towns of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum in response to their improper attitudes and lack of repentance even though the evidence of Jesus’ miracles validated His message clearly. This morning we will see Jesus’ words of comfort directed towards those that did respond to the kingdom message. We will also see Jesus’ challenge for them to continue to learn from Him and to submit to His teachings.

1 God Reveals And Conceals Knowledge Of the Kingdom

25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

• This section of Scripture must be read in the context of the previous rebukes to Jesus’ generation and the specific towns cited for their indifference and lack of repentance. >> (cr. Carson, “Matthew”, 274)
• And first we should recognize that Jesus was thankful that the Father’s will was being done. >>
  • Jesus delighting in the revealing to a group of people and the concealing of the kingdom principles from a group of people. (Carson, “Matthew”, 275) Remember, here, the Father’s actions are in fact part of the Father’s “gracious will”! >>
• The first part of the the Father’s gracious will was that He concealed the kingdom principles from those who rejected the Son and His testimony.
  • Regarding the concealing to the world’s “wise and understanding” Carson wrote, “God remains the one who reveals and conceals. Yet we must not think that God’s concealing and revealing are symmetrical activities arbitrarily exercise towards neutral human beings …” (Carson, “Matthew”, 275)
  • Thus to conceal “these things” is not an act of injustice but of judgment. They would not be given more light because they had not responded to the light thy had been given. (Carson, “Matthew”, 275)
  • The indifferent and unbeliever had received enough to respond.
  • Their disobedience and pride of life had caused the Father to go actively against their benefit by concealing truth after their rejection of the kingdom messages that were presented and validated by Jesus’ miracles.
• In contrast, Jesus was thankful that the Father had revealed the kingdom principles to those who the world regarded as children and Jesus labeled as such.
  • No adult likes being called a child, but when Jesus calls you a little child—it’s good!
  • These are the ones who accepted the message of the kingdom.
  • Remember from last week: The kingdom message was illustrated through the funeral song and the celebration song.
    • Even though the kingdom message varied, all the responding children had a few things in common:
    • i. The hearers and responders of the kingdom messages may have preferred Jesus’ words or John’s, but what’s important is that these children responded.
    • ii. They believed in Jesus’ miracles.
    • iii. They were in stark contrast to the so-called “wise” of their day.
    • iv. They had a child-like disposition regarding who they were compared to God. COMMENT

APPLICATION

• So what are some applications for us this morning as we bring this narrative into the 21st Century?
  -1 We need to take caution here: Christians can often find what God is doing—especially regard judgment in the world—hard to understand and sometimes hard to take.
  • That is why we see so much goofy theology: E.g., “Well God would never conceal His truth from anyone.”
  • I am convinced that many, many Christians have a limited knowledge—lacking much depth at all—regarding God’s character. Especially so regarding God’s judgment of unbelievers.
  • The happens because many Christians don’t read the Bible.
  • Then, if this is happening, not submitting their minds to God’s testimony of Himself and His character.
  • God the Father is Lord = Master. His work is only holy and directly lines up with His character.
  • Here is a good reminder: Blessed is the one who reads the Book of Revelation out loud and does then things in it.
• 2 Everything He is doing should get our applause!
  • We ought to know that God knows best and we can trust Him.
• 3 God will continue to conceal things from the unbeliever.
  • So we should praise God if He has revealed His kingdom truths to us!

1 God Reveals And Conceals Knowledge Of the Kingdom >> 2 Authority Has Been Delegated To The Son

2 Authority Has Been Delegated To The Son

27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father,

• Somewhere in history, the Father delegated everything that is happening here on the earth to the Son.
• When? I don’t know. The Son is now in charge.
• We see the purpose and necessity in the Son’s authority and also what His end purpose is 1 Corinthians 15:24-27, "Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For ‘God has put all things in subjection under his feet.’”

27b and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

• The Son is uniquely qualified to run the earth. For He is the only One that truly knows the Father.
• We also see Jesus as a gatekeeper of knowledge as He is perfectly aligned with the Father’s character and will. COMMENT
• Questions, Who did Jesus not confound? Who did not scratch their head in perplexity as they heard Jesus speak?
• It is painfully obvious as we read the accounts of the gospel that everyone had much to learn and apply regarding Jesus’ teaching. >>
• The most devout man, John the Baptist, had things to learn; the Disciples fumbled with their actions and words during Jesus’ earthy ministry. Jesus’ mother didn’t understand what was happening with her Son at times. Some of the crowds claimed Jesus was loosing His mind. Many religious leaders were headed straight to hell due to their lack of understanding of God and Jesus’ teaching. The only people I can thing of that understood Jesus well was the Wise Men, but that was before Jesus spoke a word! >>
• I still struggle to understand what little is recorded for us about Jesus in the NT.
• I have a booming “Amen!” ready regarding what God told Isaiah: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (55:9)
• We have to study the Man Jesus if we are to learn things about the Father. And don’t be surprised when Jesus leaves you scratching your head.

2 Authority Delegated To The Son >> 3 The Yoke Of Rest

3 The Yoke Of Rest

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

• The Pharisees all said “Do!” (Wiersbe, 2:34) Jesus said, Come and rest.
• When we come to Jesus we find rest.
• When we abide in Jesus, we abide in His rest.
• Our lives should always be in a state of rest.
• God does the work.
• “This invitation is open to those who are exhausted and burdened down. That is exactly how the people felt under the yoke of pharisaical legalism (Matt. 23:4; Acts 15:10).” (Wiersbe, 2:34)

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.”

• This is an active participation.
• Jesus placed learning from Him in direct opposition to that of the teachings of the Pharisees.
• Take my yoke upon you …
• What is the learning yoke of Christ. Metph. COMMENT
• Jesus is uniquely positioned as God’s only begotten Son to know the Father intimately and what He would do in any given situation. >>
• Jesus yoke is of a gentle because He is gentle and lowly in heart.
• Jesus’ yoke provides rest for “souls”.
• When we take His yoke we learn, in the learning we find rest, rest that penetrates our souls—our core lives and personalities—our very being. (Wiersbe, 2:34)
• Wiersbe said, “As we learn more about Him, we find a deeper peace, because we trust Him more. Life is simplified and unified around the person of Christ.” (Wiersbe, 2:34)

APPLICATION

• Do we even see Jesus anxious?
• Do we ever see Jesus worried? Jesus knows in some months He will die at the hands of His persecutes. He counted the days down in the confident character of the Father.
• If Christians truly believed and applied every passage of Scripture, we would not have one moment of anxiety or worry.
• We still have much to learn from Jesus. Let’s make sure we are continuing our journeys.

Notes

Notes from above may not be in numerical order.

¹ Click here for a chart from Constable’s Notes.

² Edersheim, Alfred. The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1971, 2:52. Mishnah Shabbath 7:4.

³ An excerpt from William Barclay:

We will not understand the attitude of the orthodox unless we understand the amazing seriousness with which they took the Sabbath Law. That Law forbade all work on the Sabbath day, and so the orthodox Jews would literally die rather than break it.

In the time of the rising under Judas Maccabaeus certain Jews sought refuge in the caves in the wilderness. Antiochus sent a detachment of men to attack them; the attack was made on the Sabbath day; and these insurgent Jews died without even a gesture of defiance or defence, because to fight would have been to break the Sabbath. 1Maccabees tells how the forces of Antiochus “gave them battle with all speed. Howbeit they answered them not, neither cast they a stone at them, nor stopped the places where they lay hid; but said: ‘Let us die in our innocency: heaven and earth shall testify for us, that ye put us to death wrongfully.’ So they rose up against them in battle on the Sabbath, and they slew them with their wives and children and cattle, to the number of a thousand people” ( 1 Maccabees 2:31-38 ). Even in a national crisis, even to save their lives, even to protect their nearest and their dearest, the Jews would not fight on the Sabbath.

It was because the Jews insisted on keeping the Sabbath Law that Pompey was able to take Jerusalem. In ancient warfare it was the custom for the attacker to erect a huge mound which overlooked the battlements of the besieged city and from the height of the mound to bombard the defences. Pompey built his mound on the Sabbath days when the Jews simply looked on and refused to lift a hand to stop him. Josephus says, “And had it not been for the practice, from the days of our forefathers, to rest on the seventh day, this bank could never have been perfected, by reason of the opposition the Jews would have made; for though our Law gave us leave then to defend ourselves against those that begin to fight with us and assault us (this was a concession), yet it does not permit us to meddle with our enemies while they do anything else” (Josephus: Antiquities, 14. 4. 2.).

Josephus recalls the amazement of the Greek historian Agatharchides at the way in which Ptolemy Lagos was allowed to capture Jerusalem. Agatharchides wrote: “There are a people called Jews, who dwell in a city the strongest of an cities, which the inhabitants call Jerusalem, and are accustomed to rest on every seventh day; at which time they make no use of their arms, nor meddle with husbandry, nor take care of any of the affairs of life, but spread out their hands in their holy places, and pray till evening time. Now it came to pass that when Ptolemy the son of Lagos came into this city with his army, these men, in observing this mad custom of theirs, instead of guarding the city, suffered their country to submit itself to a bitter lord; and their Law was openly proved to have commanded a foolish practice. This accident taught an other men but the Jews to disregard such dreams as these were, and not to follow the like idle suggestions delivered as a Law, when in such uncertainty of human reasonings they are at a loss what they should do” (Josephus: Against Apion, 1: 22). The rigorous Jewish observance of the Sabbath seemed to other nations nothing short of insanity, since it could lead to such amazing national defeats and disasters.

It was that absolutely immovable frame of mind that Jesus was up against. The Law quite definitely forbade healing on the Sabbath. It was true that the Law clearly laid it down that “every case when life is in danger supersedes the Sabbath Law.” This was particularly the case in diseases of the ear, the nose, the throat and the eyes. But even then it was equally clearly laid down that steps could be taken to keep a man from getting worse, but not to make him better. So a plain bandage might be put on a wound, but not a medicated bandage, and so on.

In this case there was no question of the paralysed man’s life being in danger; as far as danger went, he would be in no worse condition the next day. Jesus knew the Law; he knew what he was doing; he knew that the Pharisees were waiting and watching; and yet he healed the man. Jesus would accept no law which insisted that a man should suffer, even without danger to life, one moment longer than necessary. His love for humanity far surpassed his respect for ritual Law.

⁴ “The Law quite definitely forbade healing on the Sabbath. It was true that the Law clearly laid it down that “every case when life is in danger supersedes the Sabbath Law.” This was particularly the case in diseases of the ear, the nose, the throat and the eyes. But even then it was equally clearly laid down that steps could be taken to keep a man from getting worse, but not to make him better. So a plain bandage might be put on a wound, but not a medicated bandage, and so on. ¶ In this case there was no question of the paralysed man’s life being in danger; as far as danger went, he would be in no worse condition the next day. Jesus knew the Law; he knew what he was doing; he knew that the Pharisees were waiting and watching; and yet he healed the man. Jesus would accept no law which insisted that a man should suffer, even without danger to life, one moment longer than necessary. His love for humanity far surpassed his respect for ritual Law.” (Barclay)

Works Cited

Scripture quotations [unless otherwise noted] are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Click here to access the works cited web-page for this document, save those marked as “Notes” or “Other Works Cited”–if any. Most of these cited works correspond to the verses they are outlined with. In the case of general background information and references, one will find cited material with the Bible books the citations are associated with. ¶ Furthermore, there may be numbered notes that are URL linked; these are usually retained numbered notes from Thomas Constable’s, “Dr. Constable’s Expository (Bible Study) Notes.” These links are preserved “as is” at the time of this work’s formation and I usually include other citation information from Constable as well (e.g. authors’ names).

Other Works Cited

Note: All of the resources below were cited in at least one of the sermons in the Book of Matthew but not necessarily this one.

Augsburger, David. Dissident Discipleship. Brazos Press, 2006.

Barclay, William. Barclay’s Daily Study Bible. Westminster Press, 1955-1960. Sourced digitally from studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dsb.html.

Blomberg, Craig L. Matthew. New American Commentary, vol. 22, ed. David S. Dockery, et al., Broadman Press, 1992. May be sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/matthew0000blom

________. Preaching the Parables: From Responsible Interpretation to Powerful Proclamation. Baker Academic, 2004. Sourced from archive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/preachingparable0000blom/page/82/mode/1up)

Bruce, Alexander Balmain. The Training of the Twelve. Ed., A.C. Armstrong and Son, reprint 1984, Kregel Publications, 1971 edition.

Carson, D. A. “Matthew.” The Expositors Bible Commentary, Frank E. Gaebelein, Ed. et al., Zondervan, 1984.

_______. The Sermon on the Mount : an Evangelical of Matthew 5-7 Exposition. 1978, Baker Book House, fifth printing, 1989. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/sermononmounteva0000cars/page/54/mode/1up

_______. When Jesus confronts the world : an exposition of Matthew 8-10. Originally published by Inter-Varsity Press in 1988, Paternoster, 1995. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/whenjesusconfron0000cars/page/n3/mode/1up

Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest. Our Daily Bread Publishing, web ver.

France, R. T. The Gospel According to Matthew. W. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1985.

_______. The Gospel of Matthew. W. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/gospelofmatthew0000fran/page/n6/mode/1up

Gibson, J. Monro. “St. Matthew.” Expositor’s Bible Commentary. William R. Nicoll, Editor. Sourced from Bible Portal. Click here for a list of the authors of the EBC.

Harrington, Daniel J . The Gospel of Matthew. Sacra Pagina Series, vol. 1, A Michael Glazier Book, Liturgical Press (publ.), 1991. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/gospelofmatthew0000harr/mode/1up

Hendriksen, William. New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke. Baker Book House, 1984.

Phillips, John. Exploring the Gospels: John. Loizeaux Brothers, 1988.

Plumptre, E. H. “Matthew.” Commentary for English Readers, Charles John Ellicott, Compiler/Editor, Lord Bishop of Gloucester Cassell and Company, Limited, 1905. Sourced from BiblePortal.com. Click here for a list of the authors of the CER.

Robinson, Monte. The Way of Discipleship. Independently published, 2021. Web, aimdiscipleship.org/book.html, accessed Oct 2023.

Wiersbe, Warren. The Wiersbe Bible Commentary. 2 Volumes, David C. Cook, 2007.

Yancey, Philip. The Jesus I Never Knew. Zondervan, 1995.

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