Refreshment in His Presence / Matthew 11:20-30
If you have your Bibles, we are going to jump right in. We are in Matthew 11. If you happen to be a guest with us, welcome. I don’t know if it’s the school year starting back up or what, but we have had the privilege of having so many guests coming to our church and hanging out—many of whom have never been to church before in their lives. If that is you, welcome. We are so glad you are here. My name is Brad, and I get the privilege of hanging out with you this week.
We are cruising through a series in the Gospel of Matthew. The regular practice of our church is to pick a book of the Bible, drop down into it, and stay in the weeds until we are done. Then we pick another one and keep doing that. The reason we do this is because we believe that if we are faithful to teach the whole counsel of God, we actually learn what it means to walk in a genuine relationship with the God who created this world. As easy as it might be to take notes on topical messages—like “The Three P’s of a Healthy Marriage”—those might make for a good note card, but they don’t make for a fulfilling spiritual life. God’s Word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, and He wants to shape us through it.
The Answer to Our Doubts
Last week, in verse 11, Jesus made one of the most incredible statements in Scripture about John the Baptist. He said, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.”
Matthew 11:11 (NASB)
’Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen [anyone] greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
What an incredible commendation from Jesus! In all of human history, no one was greater. And yet, this very same man was sitting on death row in prison. In verses 3 and following, he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
Matthew 11:3 (NASB)
and said to Him, ‘Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’
The answer Jesus gave was fascinating. In verse 5, He gave a mash-up of several chapters from the book of Isaiah and told them to go report back to John what was happening.
Matthew 11:5 (NASB)
[the] BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and [the] lame walk, [the] lepers are cleansed and [the] deaf hear, [the] dead are raised up, and [the] POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM.
The answer to John’s doubt was not a secret password, nor was it simply Jesus saying, “Yes, I’m the guy.” The answer to John’s doubt was the faithfulness of God. John was asking, “Are You the One who was promised?” And Jesus replied, “I am doing exactly what was promised.”
I don’t know if you ever have moments where you doubt. I have moments where I say, “Lord, we’re all in here, and I just want to make sure—is this real?” How do you answer your doubts? You answer them through the faithfulness of God. Has God been faithful to His Word? Yes. Has He done exactly what He said He would do? Yes. Is He still doing what He said He would do? Yes. Then you have your answer.
John anticipated the gospel, but he didn’t get to experience the fullness of the cross and the resurrection. Centuries later, we have the benefit of progressive revelation. We get to see what Jesus accomplished in His death, burial, and resurrection. We have experienced the gospel. If God was faithful to His promises in the time of John, how much more is He faithful to His promises today?
The Problem of Religious Pride
In verse 1 of chapter 11, we get a geographic pin dropped on the map.
Matthew 11:1 (NASB)
When Jesus had finished giving instructions to His twelve disciples, He departed from there to teach and preach in their cities.
When Jesus finished instructing His disciples, He departed to teach and preach in “their cities.” He went to the Sea of Galilee, the home region of most of His disciples. I have often wondered why Jesus began His ministry in Galilee rather than Jerusalem. That would be like saying, “If I want to reach California, I’m going to start in Fresno instead of Los Angeles or the Bay Area.”
Jerusalem was the religious hub. It was the home of the High Priest, the Sanhedrin, and the Temple. But it was also steeped in suffocating legalism. They had 613 Old Testament laws plus endless oral traditions heaped onto their religious expression. Their hearts were hard. So Jesus went north to the smaller towns and villages of Galilee, looking for hearts receptive to the gospel.
Yet, as we read in verse 20, the fungus of legalism had spread even there. Jesus did not arrive hugging babies and petting unicorns; He arrived deeply grieved.
Matthew 11:20 (NASB)
Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent.
He began to denounce the cities where most of His miracles had been done because they did not repent. Roughly 70 percent of Jesus’ recorded miracles were performed in this northern Galilean region, specifically in three cities: Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum.
Miracles served two critical purposes: they authenticated the messenger, and thereby authenticated the message. In Scripture, miracles were concentrated in specific eras—Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, and Christ and the apostles. In each era, miracles appeared because a new revelation was being delivered and needed divine authentication.
Hebrews 2:3-4 (NASB)
how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.
God confirmed the message through signs, wonders, and various miracles. These Galilean cities witnessed an unprecedented display of divine power. Look at how Jesus addresses them:
Matthew 11:21-22 (NASB)
’Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. ’Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in [the] day of judgment than for you.
Chorazin was a small farming village known for harvesting wheat and olives used in temple worship. Bethsaida was a prominent fishing town, the home of Philip, Andrew, and Peter. Major miracles occurred there: the feeding of the five thousand, the healing of the blind man, and Jesus walking on the water. These were religiously conservative Jewish communities. Having seen these miracles, you would expect them to repent. Yet they remained indifferent.
Jesus told them that if pagan cities like Tyre and Sidon—known for their luxury and idolatry—had witnessed those works, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Therefore, judgment would be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for them.
Then Jesus turned His attention to Capernaum.
Matthew 11:23-24 (NASB)
’And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. ‘Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in [the] day of judgment, than for you.’
Capernaum was the largest and wealthiest of the three, with a booming economy built on fishing and the manufacture of basalt grinding stones. It was also known for having the finest religious school in the region. If you wanted the best education in the Scriptures, you went to Capernaum. That is where Jesus chose to set up His ministry headquarters.
Because of their knowledge, the people of Capernaum suffered from intellectual arrogance. They assumed they had a corner on the religious market and would be exalted to heaven. But Jesus told them they would descend to Hades. If the miracles done in Capernaum had been done in Sodom—a city destroyed in Genesis 19 for gross wickedness and immorality—it would have remained to this day.
Genesis 19:1-29 (NASB)
Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw [them], he rose to meet them and bowed down [with his] face to the ground. And he said, ‘Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.’ They said however, ‘No, but we shall spend the night in the square.’ Yet he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; and they called to Lot and said to him, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.’ But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him, and said, ’Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. ‘Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof.’ But they said, ‘Stand aside.’ Furthermore, they said, ‘This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them.’ So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door. But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied [themselves trying] to find the doorway. Then the [two] men said to Lot, ‘Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring [them] out of the place; for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.’ Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, ‘Up, get out of this place, for the LORD will destroy the city.’ But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting. When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.’ But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the LORD [was] upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city. When they had brought them outside, one said, ‘Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.’ But Lot said to them, ’Oh no, my lords! ‘Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die; now behold, this town is near [enough] to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) that my life may be saved.’ He said to him, ’Behold, I grant you this request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken. ‘Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.’ Therefore the name of the town was called Zoar. The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But his wife, from behind him, looked [back], and she became a pillar of salt. Now Abraham arose early in the morning [and went] to the place where he had stood before the LORD; and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace. Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
These cities assumed that religious heritage, Bible knowledge, and ritual participation would guarantee their standing before God. They were dead wrong.
Revealed to Infants
Jesus then turned in prayer to the Father.
Matthew 11:25-26 (NASB)
At that time Jesus said, ’I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from [the] wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. ’Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.
The religious leaders thought of themselves as the wise and intelligent. But Jesus thanked the Father for revealing truth to “infants”—to the broken, the humble, and the unpretentious. The religious elite tithed from their herb gardens while neglecting justice and intimacy with God. They loaded people down with legalistic burdens that they themselves would not lift. They were classic hypocrites.
The gospel does not go to the self-righteous; it comes to the weak and dependent.
1 Corinthians 1:27-29 (NASB)
but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.
God chose the foolish and weak things of this world to shame the wise, so that no one may boast in His presence. Jesus said He came to seek and save the lost, and that it is the sick who need a physician, not the healthy.
Luke 19:10 (NASB)
‘For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.’
Jesus’ point to these cities was clear: God never called you to get endlessly busy for God; He called you to be with God. You are running on an exhausting religious treadmill, but the gospel is not a “go and do” religion. It is a “come and be with” relationship.
Matthew 11:27 (NASB)
’All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal [Him].
No one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. So, to whom does Jesus choose to reveal the Father?
The Life-Giving Invitation
What follows is the most incredible invitation in human history. Instead of religious performance and jumping through impossible hoops, listen to the words of Jesus:
Matthew 11:28-30 (NASB)
’Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. ’Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. ‘For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.’
Jesus calls out to those who are weary and heavy laden. Every person who grew up in that legalistic system understood that weight. Checking boxes, fulfilling traditions, fearing you are never good enough—it is utterly exhausting.
Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you.” In the ancient Jewish world, a rabbi’s “yoke” referred to his set of teachings and interpretation of the law. Jesus is saying, “Lay down the crushing yoke of man-made religion, and take My teaching upon you. Learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart. You will find rest for your souls.”
You do not earn the gospel. You do not try out for it, compete for it, or qualify for it by your own merits. It is a gift offered freely by grace. Jesus invites us into a life of delight in His presence.
The Cost of Religious Hypocrisy
I was reading an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll surveying Millennials and Gen Z. One of the questions asked what they considered “very important” in life. Only 30 percent said belief in God was very important to them.
It is easy to shake our heads at that statistic, but we need to ask: What have they seen of God? What have they seen of the church? This generation has grown up seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly of modern Christianity. They have witnessed pastoral scandals, leaders building private empires, and celebrity culture in the pulpit. We have pastors treating ministry like a business, more focused on their personal brand and online following than the souls of their people.
There is even an Instagram account that tracks pastors wearing multi-thousand-dollar designer sneakers and luxury clothes. When the next generation sees religious hypocrisy, broken families, and leaders using God for personal gain, no wonder they say, “I’m out.”
What will change that? I believe the greatest apologetic we have is a community of believers walking in genuine intimacy with Jesus Christ—embracing our brokenness, keeping short accounts with God, confessing our sins, and caring far more about His glory than our own platform. When the world sees authentic believers who are transformed by grace and actively serving their city, they take notice.
Come to Him and Rest
Most of us did not grow up in ancient Jewish legalism, but it is remarkably easy to drift into our own modern versions of it. We replace grace with religious checklists and wear ourselves out trying to perform.
If you have been walking with the Lord for weeks, months, or years, hear His invitation again: come to Him and find rest. God is not asking you for exhausting performance; He is inviting you into communion. This does not diminish holiness. Instead, it transforms your motivation for holiness. Obedience is no longer you desperately trying to be good; it is Christ working in you as you delight in Him.
Philippians 2:13 (NASB)
for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for [His] good pleasure.
If you are exploring faith and have not yet trusted Christ, know this: you are not an accident. You were fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God. But we all share a fatal flaw called sin. We cannot fix it through self-help, therapy, or willpower. It required a divine sacrifice.
Ephesians 2:4-5 (NASB)
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
God, being rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ while we were still dead in our sins. By grace you are saved through faith.
1 John 1:9 (NASB)
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If there is unconfessed sin in your life, bring it into the light. He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us. You are never too far away to return to Him.
The world tells us that following Jesus is boring, burdensome, and restrictive. They have no idea what they are talking about. Walking with Jesus is where real life is found. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.
Let’s pray.
Father in heaven, thank You for setting us free from the crushing weight of religious performance. Thank You that we do not have to qualify ourselves, because Jesus has already bridged the gap for us. We are the weak, the foolish, and the simple, yet You have entrusted us with this glorious gospel. For every tired and weary soul here today, give us Your rest. Help us to lay down our self-reliance, take up Your yoke, and walk in sweet intimacy with You. May Your Spirit move among us, drawing us into life in Your presence. In Jesus’ name, Amen.