Sermon Bible Commentary
Matthew 11:28
I. Restlessness. (1) We have all known the misery of restlessness in its physical, its bodily working. (2) There is a restlessness of mere suspense. (3) There is a suspense and a restlessness accompanying doubt, more trying still. (4) There is the restlessness of sin. (5) There is the restlessness of the heart itself.
II. The restless are all to whom Christ has not yet given His rest. To these He here addresses Himself. For He, seeing the end from the beginning, sees that the end of these things is death. In Him human restlessness finds sweet repose in Him, in whose hands are accident and circumstance, chance and change. They that are in Him fear nothing. They will not be afraid of any evil tidings. In Him they who even doubt about all else find their feet upon the rock. Receiving Him into the ship, they are immediately at the land whither they go. He sends them strength, as their day, to do and to forbear, to dare and to endure. In Him the tempter "has nothing;" the souls that are in His hands no torment and no temptation can touch. In Him they find that spring and fountain of perfect beauty and absolute love of which no earthly loved one can have more, at the best, than the image and the reflection. There they cling to Him, and will not forsake Him, because they have found once, and because they find day by day, His words verified, "Come unto Me, thou that art weary and heavy laden, and I will give thee rest."
C. J. Vaughan, Temple Sermons,p. 123.
There was an old philosopher, long ago, who summed up his experience of man's life and toils and cares by saying that "the end of work is to enjoy rest." And truly there is no pleasanter word or thing. We come to feel that at last. There are days when the young heart pants for larger excitement; when the strong arm is eager for earnest toil; when we are ambitious, and would fain do something which might be the talk of men. But the sobering years go forward. We grow wearied in the greatness of the way. We understand the Psalmist's vague aspiration, "Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest." Now, when we would find true rest for our souls we can find it only in Christ. He can give rest. He does give rest. When we think what are the main sources of the soul's unrest, we shall see that Christ, even in this life, is ready to deliver His people from them.
I. The burden of sin. If we saw things rightly, and as they really are, we should feel that of all the burdens which can oppress us in this world, this is the weightiest; and when the Holy Spirit "convinces us of our sin and misery," what does that mean but just making the soul see what an overwhelming weight our sins, and the woe that follows on them, make up together, and how inexpressible is our need that the great Sin-bearer should take that load away?
II. The fear and the actual endurance of the ills, the bereavements, the losses, the disappointments that compass our path in this life. Those who know not our Christian consolation have solemnly said that the pains of life outweigh its satisfactions. Now Christ has changed all that, changed it utterly. It is not merely that Christ sends the Holy Spirit to sanctify all sorrows into means of grace. To a certain extent Christ gives His own, even in this world, rest from worldly cares.
III. The eager, anxious pursuit of those things to which worldly persons give their whole heart worldly gain and good, wealth, eminence, and distinction. Is it not true that, even here, Christ gives His people rest? The fear of earthly chances and changes He takes away. The unrest of ambition He lifts above. Often burdened as we are, often disquieted as we are, we can see that the fault does not lie with our Saviour. The fault lies in our own lack of faith to fully trust Him, if He has not given us rest.
A. K. H. B., The Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson,3rd series, p. 203.
Rest in Christ the true Communion of Saints.
I. The saying of our Lord in the text is one of those distinctive sayings of Christianity that have life and growth, and while appreciable by the little child in a sense which he can appropriate and live by, can never be exhausted by the most Christlike of men. The words were addressed at first to the unlettered peasants of Galilee, to those who were on the threshold of their new life as disciples. The Saviour does not mention from what burdens He called men to be delivered. He says nothing of hell, or even of sin. Nor of what nature the rest was to be did He make clear. The Greek equivalent of the word He used is ἀνάπαυσις, merely cessation.And each of His hearers would receive His words as He was able to receive them. But they would not listen long to the new Teacher without finding new anxieties stirring in their breast, new yearnings waking into life, and a desire for a rest they had never sought for before a respite, not from sorrow, or poverty, or oppression, but from their own wayward fancies and erring wills a rest for their souls.
II. And as they accepted the call to come to Him which the Master offered them they went on to learn new facts as to rest and the opposite of rest. The word Christ used was a word signifying a negative gift "cessation" from labour and anxiety. But they were to learn that it implied something else, which no negative gift can supply. The body is rested in the most effectual manner, and bodily strength regained, by quiet and absolute inaction. The mind that has been wrought upon by hard study or by anxiety is best relieved by amusement or change. But if the spirit of immortal man is to find rest, it cannot be in lying inactive. The true rest of the soul must be in activity, not in vacuity. If it has hitherto worn the yoke of the world, there is no rest in only throwing off that yoke. It needs some other yoke in its stead. "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me," etc. Here is one of the glorious paradoxes of the Gospel. The true deliverance from burdens is in taking on us a yoke. Rest is the reward of faith. If we have found something in which we can implicitly trust, we have found also that in which we can rest.
A. Ainger, Sermons in the Temple Church,p. 39.
When we think of this invitation we must think of human burdens of every kind. Weariness of body and mind, of soul and spirit, must alike be taken into account. There is nothing that we are able to feel which He will not relieve, if we come to Him. And He promises this relief to burdens, not only of every kind, but also of every degree. Allthat are weary and heavy laden.
I. But where is the reality of this burden and the pressure of this weariness found? Are not men living and passing on around us contented and gay-hearted, without Christ, knowing Him not, loving Him not, caring nothing for Him? These surely are not weary; these feel no burden. These He invites in vain, for they want Him not. But are we so sure of this? They are spending but a false and artificial life, after all; they are burdened with the thought of its real condition, burdened with the fear of death, burdened with every event of God's providence as it occurs. These also are among the weary and heavy laden, and to them Jesus of Nazareth repeats His invitation in every one of the means of grace, every dispensation of His world-ruling providence.
II. Let us advance another step. You feel the burden. You have learned, at least, to see that ignorance is not bliss in matters of life and death. You do look on the past, and see it like a dark wave, mountain high, coming on your frail bark to overwhelm it. You do look on the future, as much as you dare; you see in it matter for desperation, rather than for hope. Such a state is just the most critical one in which any man can be placed. If the penitent listens to the suggestions of the tempter, the balance turns for death; the brimming pool, which has paused and rippled with the breath of the Spirit towards the bright light of God's morning, bursts at once over the dark hillside, and plunges downward into the gloom. But come to Christ when he will or when he can whether the awakening be an easy one, from the lighter slumber of youth's thoughtless-ness; or a hard and painful one, from the deep and deadly sleep of years the Lord's promise to the sinner is the same: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons,vol. iii., p. 100.
In this text Christ has made two classes out of those to whom Me speaks those that labour, and those that are heavy laden. Both are sufferers; but the one class is composed of the active, and the other of the passive sufferers a description which exactly answers to the reality of daily life. We are all under active or passive discipline.
I. Look at the offered gift. It is clear that there are two ways in which God might deal with and relieve the mind that labours and is heavy laden. He might remove the cause, and so exempt the man from its effects; or He might leave the evil, but impart something which would entirely neutralize it. Of these two methods, the first is the obvious one, and therefore we call that man's way, man is always trying to remove evil. The second is much deeper and much better, and therefore it is God's way.
II. A believer's rest is threefold. (1) First there comes the rest of a sense of pardon. "We which believe have entered into rest." We "cease from our own works, as God did from His." The chief cause of the restlessness of the world is that it has not yet rested in God. (2) Sin, after it is pardoned, struggles, and often prevails; and it cannot be quite rest to a Christian so long as what he hates gets such a mastery over him. Therefore he wants a rest like that rest to Israel, when they settled down in Canaan, their enemies not all destroyed, but all conquered and held down. So it comes to pass. The higher power of the new nature in the man gradually prevails over the old inhabitants. They are there, but they are kept under. Holiness increases, and holiness is rest. The heart becomes more one, the counter-tides are not so violent, the aim of the man is single, the whole man is gathered up to a point, and that is rest. That is the rest of santification. (3) Far on, however, after this, and unto the very gate of heaven, sin lives, we feel it lives, but it does not reign. It is not perfect rest; that rest remaineth. But it is coming, it is very near perfect rest, when we shall rest from the presence of sin. Sin will be nothing but a memory, a memory of a forgiven thing, and every memory will exalt Him. That will be the rest of glory.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,6th series, p. 126.
I. Sin always imposes burdens upon the sinner.
II. The burdens of the sinner are a continual appeal to the affection and power of Jesus Christ.
III. Jesus Christ, in offering rest to burdened souls, asserted His claim to be regarded as God.
IV. A double action is indicated in the offer. Come give.Come with your burdens, and in the very act of coming the burden will be taken away.
R. A. Bertram, City Temple,vol. i., p. 11.
References: Matthew 11:28. Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts,p. 39; Ibid., Sermons,vol. xxviii., No. 1,691; Ibid., Morning by Morning,p. 351; J. N. Norton, Every Sunday,p. 182; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 530; vol. x., p. 268; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 423; Preacher's Monthly,vol. viii., p. 18; H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Children's Bread,p. 18; B. F. Westcott, The Historic Faith,p. 229; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week,p. 224; Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons,1st series, p. 45; E. V. Hall, Sermons in Worcester Cathedral,p. 50; G. Huntington, Sermons for Holy Seasons,vol. ii., p. 11.