Matthew 11

v1-6: There is nothing more encouraging to God’s people when they are in distress than to hear of how Christ has been at work.  John was in prison so was unable to see what Christ was doing, but he had heard about His works.

v7-15: “The greater the difficulties we have overcome to hear the word, the more we should be concerned to benefit from it.”  People flocked to the wilderness to hear John, but many went “to have something to talk about rather than to be made wise for salvation.”  John’s ministry was to make people ready for Jesus by revealing their sin and misery and need of a Saviour.  The end of the sermon is not the end of the sermon, it is just the beginning.

v16-24: “God uses various methods to deal with people of different kinds of personality.”  Sometimes His voice thunders from Mount Sinai, other times He speaks in a still small voice from Mount Zion.  John’s ministry and Christ’s ministry looked different but the aim was the same, the conversion and salvation of souls.

v25-30: We must come to Jesus and depend on Him as our Rest, receiving the salvation from the burden of sin He offers.  We must come to Jesus and submit to Him as our Ruler, carefully and cheerfully obeying all His commands and directions.  We must come to Jesus and learn from Him as our Teacher, daily listening to the instructions He gives by His Word and Spirit.

Matthew 12

v1-14: It is not enough to know what the Scriptures say.  We need to know what it means.  Failure to know what it means can lead to using God’s Word in ways that it was never intended to be used.

v15-21: “The great purpose of the gospel is to lead people to trust in the name of Jesus Christ” because He is the One who was chosen to be God’s servant in order to redeem us from our sins.  Every spiritual blessing and benefit we now have or can ever have is due to the fact that God was well-pleased with His servant.

v22-37: Christ is the stronger man who ties up the strong man who is Satan.  Every time someone is turn from darkness to light, from sin to holiness, from this world to the world to come, that is proof that Satan is tied up and Jesus is doing what He came to do.

v38-45: Jonah in the belly of the fish was as good as dead, expected to be dead, considered dead, but then after 3 days he showed himself to be alive.  The very fact that Jonah was alive and preaching in Nineveh was proof that God was with him and the truthfulness of his message of judgment.  Jesus will be dead.  Not as good as dead, actually dead.  But He will be rise from the grave and show Himself to be alive, and this will be proof that He is who He says He is and He has done what He said He would do. He is Lord and Saviour and Judge.  He will give His people rest by saving them from their sins and giving them eternal life; and He will judge His enemies and condemn them to hell.

v46-50: Christ’s followers “are those who do the will of his Father, those who not only hear it, know it, and talk about it but also do it."