Read Matthew 11:25–27
Questions from the Scripture text: How is the timing of Matthew 11:25-30 related to that of Matthew 11:21-24? To Whom does Jesus address His response about the unbelief of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum (Matthew 11:25)? In what way does He address Him? For what does He at first thank Him? For what does He secondly thank Him? For what does He praise the Father in Matthew 11:26? What does Jesus have (Matthew 11:27)? From Whom did He receive them? Who knows the Son? Who else? Who knows the Father? Who else?
How can we see that the Son is God? Matthew 11:25–27 looks forward to the morning sermon in public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these three verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Son is God Who knows reveals Himself, wills to do so, and knows Himself.
The Son reveals the Father to men. The Father reveals “these things” to babes (Matthew 11:25). “These things” include our need for repentance (cf. Matthew 11:18, Matthew 11:20) and our welcome to Christ (cf. Matthew 11:19a). But “these things” refers especially to the knowledge of God Himself, in the Son, by means of His Word (end of verse 19). What the Father has especially revealed is the saving knowledge of God in His Son.
Do you have that knowledge? Do you know Christ? Not “do you know about Christ,” but do you know Him as your Creator, your God and Savior, your life—in a real and living way? The Father gives this knowledge (Matthew 11:25) as an expression of His divine sovereignty (Matthew 11:26). If you do not know Christ, or even if you simply do not know if you know Him, come to the Father s a baby and ask Him to make His Son known to you.
Who can do this? Only God. Therefore, it is a glorious proof of Jesus’s divinity that He reveals even the Father Himself. Only God reveals God. The Father reveals the Son by His Spirit. The Son also reveals the Father by His Spirit to those who see Him truly (cf. John 1:14, John 1:18, John 14:8–9, Hebrews 1:1–3).
The Son wills this revelation with the Father. The divinity of Christ in revealing the Father is itself an expression of another proof of the divinity of Jesus: His willing to reveal the Father. There is a parallel between “became God’s good pleasure” in Matthew 11:26 (NKJ “seemed good”) and “wills” in Matthew 11:27. “Your sight” has the sense of “before the face of.”
Matthew 11:26 traces the revealing of the Son back into the good pleasure of the Father from all eternity.
Matthew 11:27 traces the revealing of the Father back into the “will” of the Son.
The point here is a marvelous one: the Son is as sovereign as the Father! There is, of course, only one God, and therefore only one will in God. The will of the Father and the will of the Son are one, even as it is presented here in relation to the persons. Coming to the saving knowledge of God isn’t just a reason to thank Christ as the God-Man Who has revealed the Father to you; it is a reason to worship Christ as the eternal God Who has decreed your salvation.
The Son knows the Father in a way that no creature can know. Matthew 11:27 begins with a statement that His Father has handed all things over to Him. This declares that Jesus rules over all things and carries out all of the divine work (including both the hiding and the revealing that God has willed). And by saying “My Father,” Jesus implies that this is His proper right and inheritance as a divine Person. The parallel in the mutual knowledge here asserts the divinity of the Father in that He alone knows the Son and the divinity of the Son in that He alone knows the Father.
When the triune God saves us, He brings us into a world of mutual fellowship and joy. We do not come to know the Son as He is in Himself. Only God can do that. And we do not come to know the Father as He is in Himself. Only God can do that. But the Son, by the Spirit (cf. Matthew 3:11–12, Matthew 3:16–17), brings us to know God. Not as He is in Himself, but as He has revealed Himself to us. He brings us to have fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He brings us to adore the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He brings us to delight in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
As you grow in knowing God, God is bringing you into more and more of His own fellowship. As you glorify God, you are participating in an adoration that truly began within God Himself. As you enjoy God, you are participating in a joy that truly began within God Himself. This is what Christ has brought you into. Even as He thanks the Father, we also ought to thank the Father and the Son. The more you grow by the grace of Christ and by the knowing of Christ (cf. 2 Peter 3:18), the more you will find that He is making your life a literal heaven on earth.
What experience and fruit do you have of knowing Christ? How can this come about? By what means are you looking to Him for this knowledge? How are you responding to Him as the God Who gives it?
Sample prayer: Lord Jesus, we praise You, Who are God, from all eternity, together with the Father and the Spirit. Truly, all things have been delivered into Your hands by Your Father; and, thus, You have saved us by revealing to us the knowledge of the Father, by Your Spirit. For we ask it in Your Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP2 “Why Do Gentile Nations Rage?” or TPH73C “In Sweet Communion, Lord with Thee”
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