AN OFFER OF TRUE REST.
Matthew 11:20-30.
MATTHEW 11:20-24. Jesus pronounced terrible ‘Woes’ against those cities which had witnessed His mighty deeds and yet remained unrepentant. It would be worse for them in the day of judgment than for Tyre and Sidon, and even than Sodom: because if those cities had witnessed what these cities witnessed, “they would have repented long ago,” said Jesus. What a terrible thing it would be for us to sit under the ministry of the gospel and yet to remain untouched by it!
MATTHEW 11:25. Jesus gave thanks to the Father. All the wisdom of the wise could not find God, but He reveals Himself to humble folks ‘in the face of Jesus Christ’ (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:6).
MATTHEW 11:26. There is a fine line between the Sovereignty of God and human responsibility. God reveals Himself to whomsoever He will, “for so it seemed good in Thy sight.”
MATTHEW 11:27. What is exceptional is Jesus’ claim to a close and unique personal relationship with the Father.
MATTHEW 11:28. Yet Jesus calls, “Come unto Me” to the ‘whosoever’ (cf. John 3:16).
To whom comes this call? To those who are burdened down with the rules and regulations of religion (cf. Matthew 23:2-4). We find no peace in man-made religion, and even the perfect law of God becomes a burden to the guilty.
Jesus perfectly fulfils the law of God in His own Person (cf. Matthew 5:17). He bears away the burden of our sins on the Cross of Calvary. He silences the accusations of our conscience (cf. Hebrews 10:22).
MATTHEW 11:29. He gives us the perfect “rest” which comes from ‘peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ’ (cf. Romans 5:1). He gives us the peace that the world cannot give (cf. John 14:27). Not just pie-in-the-sky when I die ‘in the sweet by and by’ - but perfect peace as a present possession in the here and now.
MATTHEW 11:30. Yet this is not a call to lawlessness. There is a yoke to be borne. But the Carpenter of Nazareth has so fashioned that yoke that, when we are yoked to Him, the trials of life are easily borne.
