Matthew 11

Matthew 11:1

The very hairs of your head are all numbered. An assurance of the most special providence over all Christ’s disciples. Matthew 10:32 shows to whom the blessed assurance applies.

Matthew 11:3

Whosoever will confess me before men. To confess Christ does not mean to accept some particular creed, but to publicly acknowledge the Lord, and to live before men as his servant. It implies, (1) A confession of faith in him with the lips, such a confession as Peter made (Matthew 16:16), and the eunuch (Acts 8:37). Paul describes this confession in Romans (Romans 10:10). (2) An acknowledgment of Christ by obedience and by giving the life to his service. Confession is a demonstration of faith, (1) by public acknowledgment, and (2) by an obedient life. A verbal acknowledgment of Christ is not enough if the life is a denial, for then it shows that the acknowledgment was a lie. The two must correspond. Him will I confess. Christ sitting on the throne of judgment promises to acknowledge as his own faithful brother every one who has thus acknowledged him before men.

Matthew 11:4

But whosoever shall deny me before men. The Jews denied him when they rejected him as Messiah. All who refuse to receive him as their Lord deny him still. The disciple who, through the cares of the world, turns away from Christian life, denies him. Him will I also deny. Those who receive him will be received; those who reject him will be rejected; those who confess him will be confessed, and those who deny him, denied. See 2 Timothy 2:12.

Matthew 11:5

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. Christ has to conquer a peace by overcoming the evil that is in the way of peace. Hence, to preach the gospel of purity and peace always arouses the opposition of the evil doer. Evil has to be put down before peace can prevail. Hence, while the great end that Christ proposes is peace, the immediate result of his coming, and of the preaching of the gospel, was opposition and bloodshed. But a sword. The only sword that Christ or his followers use in the conflict is the Sword of the Spirit, but the persecutor has in every age turned upon them the carnal sword. The sword is sent because persecutors use it upon the church.

Matthew 11:6

I am come to set a man at variance against his father. This was not the Savior’s object, but the effect. The conversion of individual members of the family would cause variance. In nearly all quarrels, except those about religion, the members of the same family stand together, but in religious feuds the family circle is often broken and its parts arrayed against each other.

Matthew 11:7

A man’s foes [shall be] they of his own household. This has been verified thousands of times. Many a convert has been turned out of home and banished by kindred, because he had confessed Christ.

Matthew 11:8

He that loveth father or mother more than me. The Lord does not require us to love these less, but him more. Love for him must become the dominant principle of life. Is not worthy of me. Will not be accepted as worthy.

Matthew 11:9

He that taketh not his cross. Luke adds, “daily” (Lu 9:23); not once, but all the time. The cross is the pain of the “self-denial” required. The cross is the “symbol of doing our duty, even at the cost of the most painful death”. Christ obeyed God, and carried out his work of the salvation of men, though it required him to die upon the cross in order to do it. And ever since, the cross has stood as the emblem, not of suffering, but of suffering for the sake of Christ and his gospel. And followeth me. To follow Christ is to take him for our master, our teacher, our example; to believe his doctrines, to uphold his cause, to obey his precepts, and to do it though it leads to heaven by the way of the cross.

Matthew 11:10

He that findeth his life shall lose it. Whoever counts his life of so much value that he will preserve it by sacrificing his Christian integrity, or will renounce his religion to save his life, will find in the end that he has lost his soul forever for the sake of a few fleeting years; while he who gives up all things, even life itself, will find an abundant reward in the life eternal. “All self-seeking is self-losing”. The Divine law is always to give in order to receive.

Matthew 11:11

He that receiveth you receiveth me. They would go forth in Christ’s name, as his servants and ambassadors. They carried his message, and to receive it and them was virtually receiving him.

Matthew 11:12

In the name of a prophet. That is, because he is a prophet. The apostles themselves were prophets.

Matthew 11:13

Whosoever shall give to drink to these little ones. By the “little ones” are probably meant Christ’s disciples. A cup of cold [water] only. The smallest act of kindness. If done “because he was a disciple”, or out of regard for Christ, he should never lose his reward. Good deeds are never lost. Note the six things here spoken of as belonging to discipleship of Christ: (1) Confessing or professing; (2) Fighting; (3) Bearing his standard (the cross); (4) Suffering; (5) Following; (6) Giving up life. These are all the duties of the soldier.

Matthew 11:15

The Message from John the Baptist SUMMARY OF MATTHEW 11: John Sends from Prison to Christ. Christ’s Answer. The Character of John the Baptist. None Greater before Him. The Least in the Kingdom. The Criticisms of John and Christ. The Woes of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. Wisdom Hid from the Wise, but Given unto Babes. The Sweet Invitation.

Matthew 11:16

When John had heard in the prison. Compare Mr 6:14-29 Lu 7:19-28. John had now been a year in prison, to which he had been sent by Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, because he had rebuked his adulterous marriage with his brother Philip’s wife (Matthew 14:1-11). Josephus says that Machaerus, a strong fortress built by Herod the Great, the father of Antipas, about ten miles east of the Dead Sea, was the prison. He sent two of his disciples. To make the inquiry found in the next verse. The course of Jesus was so different from what John himself, in common with other Jews, expected of the Messiah, that after lying in a dungeon for a year, he began to be uncertain. If Jesus was the Christ, why did he not proclaim himself the Messiah King, destroy the power of the Romans and of Herod, and release John himself from prison? So he reasoned.

Matthew 11:17

Art thou he that should come? John the Baptist had predicted the coming One (Matthew 3:11). Perhaps John, impatient of the long delay, hoped to incite Jesus to proclaim his Messiahship.

Matthew 11:18

Jesus answered and said. Luke states that at “that same hour he cured many of their infirmities” (Lu 7:21). After permitting the messengers to see his work, he pointed to it as his answer (Lu 7:22). Go and show John again those things which ye hear and see. To John’s question Jesus gives no direct reply. There is something severe in the whole of our Lord’s demeanor and language, as if reproving this shaking of John’s higher faith in God.

Matthew 11:19

The dead are raised. In Luke, the raising of the widow’s son at Nain immediately precedes this message (Lu 7:11-17); and in this Gospel we have seen the ruler’s daughter raised (Matthew 9:18-26). The poor have the gospel preached to them. It adds to the force of this testimony that the poor had always been overlooked by Pharisees and the Jewish doctors. The ancient philosophers and theologians had no gospel for those who could not pay for it. The climax is preaching the gospel to the poor. Jesus answers John by pointing to his works. They were a more convincing answer than words. What he has done for mankind is still a most convincing demonstration.

Matthew 11:20

Blessed is [he], etc. This is suggested by John’s seeming to have stumbled, not fallen, because Christ had not publicly declared his mission. The Lord does not upbraid, but gives in this way a tender rebuke, implying that he knew what to do with reference to his kingdom.

Matthew 11:21

What went yet out into the wilderness to see? An allusion to John’s ministry in the wilderness, which had been attended by most of Christ’s disciples. A reed shaken with the wind. The reed of Egypt and Palestine is a very tall cane, growing twelve feet high, and is easily bent by the wind. John was not like the reed. He could not be bent by every breath of applause or displeasure.

Matthew 11:22

A man clothed in soft raiment? Were you attracted into the wilderness of Judea to see an effeminate courtier? Had he been a pliant courtier he would have flattered Herod, and would not have been thrown into prison for his rebuke of sin in high places.

Matthew 11:23

More than a prophet. He was more than a prophet, because he was a reformer, forerunner and way-preparer, as well as prophet. No other prophet ever had so honored an office.

Matthew 11:24

This is [he], concerning whom it is written. Of whom Malachi (Malachi 3:1) and Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 40:3). See PNT Matthew 3:3.

Matthew 11:25

Among them that are born of women. Among all of the human race that were before John the Baptist. The world thinks that kings, generals, and statesmen are the greatest of men. But God measures differently. Time, too, measures differently. Herod, now, would hardly be known at all if he had not imprisoned John the Baptist. He that is least in the kingdom of heaven. This shows, (1) That John was not in the kingdom of God. (2) That, as none greater than John has been born of women, no one had yet entered the kingdom. (3) That, therefore, it had not yet been set up, but as John himself, Jesus, and the Twelve under the first commission, preached, was “at hand” (Matthew 3:2 4:17 10:7). (4) All in the kingdom, even the humblest, have a superior station to John, because they have superior privileges.

Matthew 11:26

From the days of John the Baptist until now, etc. The idea is, that from the time when John began preaching, men of violence were trying to force their way into the kingdom. It is compared to a walled city that men try to storm and enter. They tried a little later to make Jesus a king by force.

Matthew 11:27

The prophets and the law prophesied until John. For the meaning we must turn to Luke, where the same words occur with the addition, “since that time the kingdom of God is preached” (Lu 16:16). Then first began the announcement that John was the way-preparer, the forerunner of the King, that the kingdom was at hand, that the old dispensation was about to close.

Matthew 11:28

This is Elijah, who was to come. Malachi predicted that Elijah would come to prepare the way for the Lord. Christ explains that this was fulfilled in John. He was not the literal, but a spiritual Elijah. See Malachi 4:5.

Matthew 11:29

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. A formula used by Christ to give emphasis to an utterance of especial importance. See also Matthew 13:9,43 Mr 4:9,23 7:16 Lu 8:8 14:35.

Matthew 11:30

To what shall I liken this generation? Compare Lu 7:31-35. The Jewish nation is meant. The Lord shows that they were as capricious as children. Children sitting in the markets. All ancient towns had an open market place, which was the great place of resort.