What does matthew 11 28 mean

The Savior beacons us to stop and look to him for rest. He will continue to walk faithfully, we must decide whether we will answer and follow. His invitation is also an invitation to die to ourselves, to trade all that we have, and to be made new. Some carry the yoke of religion, seeking to appease God by our own perfection. This will never work in a fallen world, in fallen flesh. In this way, we stand condemned. I think that this metaphor teaches us a great deal more about that faith that we are always talking about in the pulpit, and which, I am afraid, many of our congregations do not very distinctly understand, than many a book of theology does.

And, therefore, if Christ, and not merely a doctrinal truth about Christ, be the Object of our faith, then it is very clear that faith, which grasps a Person, must be something more than the mere act of the understanding which assents to a truth.

And what more is it? How is it possible for one person to lay hold of and to come to another? By trust and love, and by these alone. These be the bonds that bind men together. Mere intellectual consent may be sufficient to fasten a man to a dogma, but there must be will and heart at work to bind a man to a person; and if it be Christ and not a theology, to which we come by our faith, then it must be with something more than our brains that we grasp Him and draw near to Him.

That is to say, your will is engaged in your confidence. Trust Him as you trust one another, only with the difference befitting a trust directed to an absolute and perfect object of trust, and not to a poor, variable human heart.

Trust Him as you trust one another. Then, just as husband and wife, parent and child, friend and friend, pass through all intervening hindrances and come together when they trust and love, so you come closer to Christ as the very soul of your soul by an inward real union, than you do even to your dear ones, if you grapple Him to your heart with the hoops of steel, which, by simple trust in Him, the Divine Redeemer forges for us.

Therefore this further call is addressed to all those who have come to Him, feeling their weakness and their need and their sinfulness, and have found in Him a Saviour who has made them restful and glad; and it bids them live in the deepest submission of will to Him, in joyful obedience, in constant service; and, above all, in the daily imitation of the Master.

And I beseech you to remember that if you go and part these two halves from one another, as many people do, some of them bearing away the one half and some the other, you have got a maimed Gospel; in the one case a foundation without a building, and in the other case a building without a foundation.

And both halves bleed themselves away and die, being torn asunder; put them together, and each has power. That separation is one reason why so many Christian men and women are such poor Christians as they are-having so little real religion, and consequently so little real joy. I could lay my fingers upon many men, professing Christians-I do not say whether in this church or in other churches-whose whole life shows that they do not understand that Jesus Christ has a twofold summons to His servants; and that it is of no avail once, long ago, to have come, or to think that you have come, to Him to get pardon, unless day by day you are keeping beside Him, doing His commandments, and copying His sweet and blessed example.

And now, lastly, look at the twofold promise which is here. The one is the perfecting and the prolongation, no doubt, of the other, but has likewise in it some other, I say not more blessed, elements.

Dear brethren, here are two precious things held out and offered to us all. Do you want that? Go to Christ, and as soon as you go to Him you will get that rest. There is rest in faith. The very act of confidence is repose. And, oh! But, brethren, that is not enough, and, blessed be God!

There is a further, deeper rest in obedience, and emphatically and most blessedly there is a rest in Christ-likeness. We have done with passionate hot desires,-and it is these that breed all the disquiet in our lives-when we take the meekness and the lowliness of the Master for our pattern.

The river will no longer roll, broken by many a boulder, and chafed into foam over many a fall, but will flow with even foot, and broad, smooth bosom, to the parent sea. There is quietness in self-sacrifice, there is tranquillity in ceasing from mine own works and growing like the Master. To come to Christ, is to apply to him in faith and prayer for such blessings as we see we want. And I — I alone, for no one else can, will give you freely, what you cannot purchase, rest, namely, from the guilt of sin by justification, and from the power of sin by sanctification; rest, from a sense of the wrath of God and an accusing conscience, in peace with God and peace of mind; rest, from all carnal affections, and fruitless worldly cares, disquietudes, and labours, in the love of God shed abroad in your hearts; and rest in the midst of the afflictions, trials, and troubles of life, in a full assurance that all things shall work for your good, and that, though in the world you may have tribulation, in me you shall have peace.

Some commentators, by the rest offered in this invitation, understand that freedom from the burdensome services of the law which Christ has granted to men through the promulgation of the gospel. There is no reason, however, for confining the rest of the soul here offered to that particular privilege of Christianity. It is more natural to think that it comprehends therewith all the blessings of the gospel whatsoever.

Christianity, when embraced in faith and love, and possessed in the life and power of it, gives rest to the soul, because, 1st, it clearly informs the judgment concerning the most important points, removing all doubts concerning them; 2d, it settles the will in the choice of what is for its happiness; 3d, it controls and regulates the passions, and keeps them under subjection to the peace and love of God.

Php ; Colossians Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary It becomes children to be grateful. When we come to God as a Father, we must remember that he is Lord of heaven and earth, which obliges us to come to him with reverence as to the sovereign Lord of all; yet with confidence, as one able to defend us from evil, and to supply us with all good.

Our blessed Lord added a remarkable declaration, that the Father had delivered into his hands all power, authority, and judgment. We are indebted to Christ for all the revelation we have of God the Father's will and love, ever since Adam sinned. Our Saviour has invited all that labour and are heavy-laden, to come unto him.

In some senses all men are so. Worldly men burden themselves with fruitless cares for wealth and honours; the gay and the sensual labour in pursuit of pleasures; the slave of Satan and his own lusts, is the merest drudge on earth.

Those who labour to establish their own righteousness also labour in vain. The convinced sinner is heavy-laden with guilt and terror; and the tempted and afflicted believer has labours and burdens. Christ invites all to come to him for rest to their souls.

He alone gives this invitation; men come to him, when, feeling their guilt and misery, and believing his love and power to help, they seek him in fervent prayer.

Thus it is the duty and interest of weary and heavy-laden sinners, to come to Jesus Christ. This is the gospel call; Whoever will, let him come. All who thus come will receive rest as Christ's gift, and obtain peace and comfort in their hearts.

But in coming to him they must take his yoke, and submit to his authority. They must learn of him all things, as to their comfort and obedience. He accepts the willing servant, however imperfect the services. Here we may find rest for our souls, and here only. Nor need we fear his yoke. His commandments are holy, just, and good.

Jesus has just said that He can reveal His Father to anyone, and He immediately offers rest to everyone who is weighed down. Jesus is not talking about physical rest, necessarily. The following verse will describe it as rest for the soul. The path to the Father through Jesus is not one of weary labor and heavy work. Jesus' earlier analogy about the path to life being narrow and "difficult" Matthew is entirely separate, and speaking from a different perspective.