The Memoirs of Matthew: An Introduction

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It is my great joy today to invite you to turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew as we begin our journey through this remarkable Book.  First of all, I want you to notice the title in our translation; the title is simply, “The Gospel According to MATTHEW.”  And in the first verse, Matthew, chapter 1, verse 1, reads like this, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”  And with those words, Matthew begins his Gospel.  But before we can appreciate what's happening in Matthew's Gospel, we first need to step back and consider a couple of observations that will help us understand how this Book fits into the flow of Biblical revelation.

First of all, we can observe this, “Matthew's placement as the first Book in our New Testament reminds us that it is not isolated, that it fits into the Scripture.”  Specifically, it fits into “The Bible's Theme.”  What is the theme of that Book you hold in your hand?  All sixty-six Books point to this great reality:  “God is redeeming a people by His Son, for His Son, to His own glory,” that's the theme of the Bible.  And Matthew fits into and contributes to that theme.  

But Matthew also fits into the sort of “Flow of that theme” as it's unfolded. You see, when you look at “The Old Testament,” the Old Testament tells us that “The Messiah will come to deal with sin.”  Genesis 3:15, on the very day of the fall, the eternal Son of God announces to the human race that a unique human being will come who will deal with sin, of course, prophesying Himself and His own incarnation.  That's the Old Testament; the Messiah will come, and He will deal with sin.

When we come to the Gospels, the message we learn there is that the Messiah came as Jesus of Nazareth.  The Gospels actually account for 48% of the New Testament, and they were placed at the beginning of the New Testament because they serve as the foundation of the Christian Faith.  The Messiah came, and His name is Jesus of Nazareth.  Acts and the Epistles say this is why Messiah came, this is what He's doing now and begins to tell us what He will also do in the future.  And then Revelation tells us that Jesus the Messiah will come again.  He will come again to establish His Millennial Kingdom, a thousand years on this planet, and His Eternal Kingdom in a New Heaven and a New Earth.

The focus of God's eternal plan, which centers in the Messiah, is the redemption from fallen humanity of a people for Himself.  Merrill Unger writes, “The theme of Scripture is human redemption.  The principal character is the world's Redeemer, Jesus Christ, God incarnate.”  John MacArthur writes, “The Bible is the story of God redeeming His chosen people for the praise of His glory.”  So, that's how Matthew fits into our Bibles.

But I want you to see a second observation, and that is “Matthew's role as one of four Gospels helps us understand what it contributes to the message that is Jesus' Gospel.”  You see, the English word ‘Gospel’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘Godspell,’ which simply means ‘a good story.’  But more importantly, the English word translates the Greek word ‘euangelion.’  It means literally ‘a good message’ or ‘good news.’  What is the Gospel?  In Scripture, the Gospel is the good news, that through His Son, God has made a way to pardon our sin, restore us to His favor, renovate our natures, raise our bodies from death, and give us eternal life.  God gives those blessings to fallen human beings freely by grace alone, and we receive them through repentance and faith alone, based on the person and work of Christ alone.  That's the Gospel. 

But in the New Testament, the word ‘Gospel’ is never used of a written document.  It was in the early church that it began to be used that way.  In fact, in 150 A.D., Justin Martyr wrote the Roman Senate about the Christian faith, and in that letter, he refers to the memoirs composed by the Apostles, which are called ‘Gospels.’  So clearly, Christians had begun to refer to the four written accounts of Jesus' life as “The Gospels.”  The church accepted only these four because they were either written by an Apostle, in the case of Matthew and John; or they were written under the authority of an Apostle; in the case of Mark, writing under Peter, and Luke, writing under Paul.  Matthew, by the way, is always first in all of the early lists of New Testament books.  We'll talk about that in a moment, but why four Gospel accounts?  

It's because no one book can fully account for the majesty of the person of Jesus the Messiah.  Each Gospel contributes its part toward a full portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ's life and work.  I love how Merrill Tenney describes it, he says:

Think of each of the Books that are the Gospels like this; think of Mark as a collection of candid photographs of Jesus in action, snapshots of Jesus in action.  (That's why Mark again and again says, “Immediately Jesus did this, and immediately did this, and immediately he did this.”  He says…) Think of Luke, however, like a video as Jesus walks and interacts among men.  Think of John as an X-ray of Jesus' full nature and personality.  But when it comes to Matthew, think of Matthew as a formal portrait painted in the studio of Scripture itself. 

That's the Gospel of Matthew.  Since the four Gospels are in the end about the same Gospel, they begin to be identified in each case as “The Gospel According to Matthew,” “The Gospel According to Mark,” “The Gospel According to Luke,” “The Gospel According to John.”  Today we begin our study of “The Gospel According to Matthew.” 

Now before we begin to work through this Book, verse by verse, we first need to back up and examine it as a whole.  The title of this Gospel and the content of the very first verse raises several important questions about this Gospel.  For example, who wrote it?  What do we know about him?  When did he write?  To whom did he write this Gospel?  Why, what are his reasons for writing?  And what is the main point?  What is the theme of this Gospel?  Those are crucial issues that we need to consider before we move forward this morning.  

So, let's begin with this first issue and that is “The Author of Matthew,” The author of Matthew.  Let's begin with “His identity.”  Who wrote this Gospel?  You say, “Tom, is this a trick question?  My Bible says, ‘The Gospel According to Matthew.’”  Well, understand that the title, in our translation, was not likely on the original autograph that Matthew wrote.  It was unnecessary because the people to whom he was writing knew it was from him.  They knew that he had written it and was distributing it to them.  But this title does appear on every Greek manuscript we have of this Gospel.  Why?  Because it was the unanimous testimony of the early church that the first Gospel was written by the Apostle Matthew. 

Papias, writing in 130 A.D., says this, “Matthew wrote the Oracles (that is his Gospel) in the Hebrew dialect and everyone interpreted them as he was able.”  Irenaeus, writing in 185 A.D., “Matthew produced his Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect while Peter and Paul were at Rome.”  Origen, writing in the early 200’s, said, “Among the four Gospels, the first was written by Matthew who was once a tax collector, and it was prepared for the converts from Judaism and published in the Hebrew language.”  So, when you look at the testimony of the early Church Fathers, in the case of Papias, for example, he knew the Apostles; He lived,  and his life intersected with theirs.  He says, “This Book” and all of those in the early church said, “This Book was written by Matthew the Apostle.”  There are also some small hints, some clues in this Gospel, that Matthew wrote it.  We have the external testimony, that's clear and unequivocal, but there are also some clues here that lead us in that direction.

For example, in the four lists of the Apostles in the New Testament, Matthew is always listed seventh or eighth among the twelve.  But only in Matthew is he called “The Tax Collector,” which seems to be a personal reference as he remembers who he was before Christ found him.  Only this Gospel uses the name ‘Matthew’ for the man who's known in the other Gospels as ‘Levi.’  And Matthew's Gospel also uses some financial terminology that would have been very common to a first century tax collector.  For example, this Gospel mentions gold five times, silver ten times, and talent, which was a weight of money, fourteen times.  In the question about paying tribute to Caesar, only this Gospel uses the precise Greek term in the first century.  Only this Gospel records Peter's question about the annual half shekel temple tax.  Only it records that Judas, after he regretted what he had done, threw the thirty pieces of silver into the temple before he went and hanged himself.  And the huge amount of debt in the story of the unforgiving debtor in chapter 18 seems to point, as several writers point out, toward the writer of this Gospel being a man who understood big numbers and high finance.  So, the evidence then confirms that Matthew is its author.  The external evidence is unanimous, and there is internal evidence that certainly confirms that to us. 

So, let's move on then.  If he is, in fact, Matthew, as the evidence clearly says, what were “His Qualifications?”  Was he qualified to write this Gospel?  Yes, he was.  First of all, because he was “Chosen as an Apostle by Jesus.”  Jesus sovereignly chose twelve men to be His official proxies, His representatives.  He gave them the name ‘Apostles,’ and Matthew was in that hand-picked group.  Turn to chapter 10; Matthew, chapter 10, and verse 2, “Now, the names of the Twelve Apostles (The legal proxies for Jesus that He appointed) are these…” And look at verse 3, in the middle of the verse, it includes “…Matthew the tax collector.”  Matthew was hand-picked by Jesus to be His Apostle.

Number two, he was personally taught by Jesus.  In Acts, chapter 1, verses 21 and 22, the Apostles actually make this a necessary qualification for an Apostle.  “It is necessary (They say.) that of the men who have accompanied us all the time, that the Lord went in and out among us–beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up…” “that we choose Judas' replacement from them.” (Summary paraphrase)  This wasn't a requirement that they had to physically be there; Paul didn't meet that qualification.  The idea was that they had been taught by Jesus Himself.  Of course, Paul argues that was true of him in Galatians 1.  So, Matthew was qualified because he was personally taught by Jesus.

Number three, third qualification, he “Saw the risen Christ.”  In John, chapter 20, Jesus appeared to ten Apostles, including Matthew, on the very day of His Resurrection, the evening of His Resurrection.  And in Acts, chapter 1, verse 22, we learn that that too was a qualification for an Apostle.  They had to be able to witness, with the other Apostles, the Resurrection of Jesus.  He was qualified.

Number four, he was “Given the miraculous gifts of an Apostle by Jesus.” 2 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 12, speaks of the gifts of an apostle, miracles and healing and all of those sorts of things.  Turn to Matthew 10 again and look at verse 1, “Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and (He) gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”

A fifth qualification is he was “Authorized to write for Jesus.”  You remember in the “Upper Room Discourse” in John 14:26, Jesus says to the eleven who were still there, Judas is gone at this point, he says, “the Holy Spirit…will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”  In John 16, verse 12-13, he says, the Holy Spirit “will guide you into all the truth.” That was a promise to the Apostles, and Jesus expected them to speak on His behalf.  In the “High Priestly Prayer,” John 17, when He's praying, in verse 20, He says, “I do not ask on behalf of these (eleven) alone, but for those also who will believe in Me through their word.”  Jesus expected the Apostles to speak on His behalf.  In fact, He gave them that assignment in Acts, chapter 1, verse 8, “…you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

By the way, that implies writing because the eleven Apostles wouldn't be able to, physically in their lifetimes, travel to all the remotest part of the earth.  But if there's any doubt, Jesus' statement to John the Apostle in Revelation, chapter 1, verse 11, makes it clear.  He says to John, “I want you to write what I tell you to write, and I want you to send it to the churches.” (Paraphrase)  So clearly that was Jesus' plan for getting His Word out.  So, Matthew then was eminently qualified to write this Gospel.

But that brings us to another aspect of this author, that is Matthew, and that is, what were “His Sources?”  What were his sources?  Now, let me just give you a little background because one answer to that question is a bad answer.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke, those three Gospels, are often called “The Synoptic Gospels.” ‘Syn,’ which means together, ‘optic,’ which means ‘to see,’ ‘see together.’  Why?  Because those three Gospels often record the same events from Jesus' life, using the same language, even the same words at times, and maintaining the same order of events.  And yet at times, they differ from each other as well. 

So modern scholars have identified this as “The Synoptic Problem.”  Clue–it's not a problem!  But in answer to this problem, they've come up with several theories.  The most common theory, and you'll read this even in conservative commentaries and study Bibles and so forth, is that Mark wrote first and then Matthew and Luke copied him in many places.  And then elsewhere, where they don't agree with Mark, they copied from another document that's now lost.  That document is often referred to as “Q” because it's the first letter of the German word for ‘source.’  That's the solution they've come up with. 

But folks, there is no “Synoptic Problem.”  There's a much simpler explanation.  The reason for similarities among the Synoptic Gospels is they all witnessed or heard from witnesses who saw the same events.  And the reason for the differences is that they wrote from their own differing viewpoints, with their own differing personalities, and with distinctly different goals in writing each of their Gospels.  The Holy Spirit, of course, superintended their writing to ensure that the final product was without error, as Paul reminds us in 2 Timothy 3.  So, that's not a problem and that's not the answer.

So, what were Matthew's sources?  Well, first of all, “Eyewitness Testimony.”  That included, of course, his own, right?  Matthew's conversion came about a year into Jesus' three-and-a-half-year ministry, so Matthew himself witnessed firsthand most of Jesus' earthly ministry.  But he also had the eyewitness testimony of the other Apostles because Matthew became an Apostle; and for at least twenty years after his conversion, Matthew was with the other Apostles in the city of Jerusalem, and he was hearing firsthand from other eyewitnesses of Jesus' life and ministry.  And also, he had the input of the other Gospel writers.  Matthew was with John for those twenty years in Jerusalem, and he interacted with Luke during his years in Antioch of Syria, which we'll talk about in a moment.  So, he had eyewitness testimony.

But also, there were “Written Documents” that he likely had at his disposal.  Those probably included his own written notes.  Matthew was, after all, a very educated man; and in his trade, would have done a lot of writing.  Think about yourself; what if you were chosen to be one of the Twelve Apostles with Jesus and day after day, week after week, month after month, you had the privilege of sitting under the ministry of Jesus?  What would you do?  You'd be sure to bring some papyrus and something to write with so that you could capture some of what Jesus said.  Undoubtedly, the Apostles did that, and Matthew would have been certainly doing that.  But he also had the written notes of others.  I mean, for example, Luke 1:1 tells us that there were written sources.  Luke wrote both Luke and Acts, but he refers to these written documents at the beginning of his Gospel.  There he says that “…many have undertaken to compile an account…”  So, even at that point in history, many people had written documents that recorded events from Jesus' life.  

But, of course, the most important source Matthew had was “The Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:21 says, “No prophecy of Scripture (including Matthew's Gospel) was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”  So, those were his sources. 

But let's ask the question before we leave this issue of the author of this gospel, “Who is this man?  What do we know about him?  What kind of person was he?”  Let's see if we can answer that by looking at “His Biography” briefly.  Here's what we know about Matthew.  First of all, we know he lived in the city of Capernaum on the northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee, the very city that Jesus made His ministry headquarters through His earthly ministry.  He may have been from there, but he certainly lived there.  We also know that he had two names.  Mark and Luke both referred to this man as ‘Levi.’ But in this gospel, he's called ‘Matthew’ in chapter 9, verse 9.  Now, it wasn't uncommon for Jews living in Galilee to have two names.  Think of Simon Peter, or Thomas and Bartholomew.  We don't know if Matthew always had these two names or if like Peter, Jesus changed his name.  If Jesus did change his name, it's a remarkable play on words.  Think about it; ‘Levi,’ the man who took so much as a tax collector from so many, becomes ‘Matthew,’ which in Hebrew and Aramaic means ‘gift of Yahweh.’  The man who stole from God's people becomes ‘Christ's gift to His people.’ 

Mark 2:14 tells us something else about this man. He was “the son of Alphaeus.”  Now, that doesn't help us much.  Although there is another Apostle, James the Less, who's also called “the son of Alphaeus,” it's unlikely they were brothers because the New Testament never refers to it as it does, for example, with James and John.  And Alphaeus was a common Jewish name, so that doesn't help us a lot except to tell us that he was Jewish.  And both of his names clearly are Jewish as well. 

In this Book, we learn something else about this man, and that is that he was well-educated.  In Matthew's Gospel, there is evidence that he knew and spoke and wrote three languages:  Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic.  So, he was a very well-educated man.  But, of course, the most famous thing about this man is Matthew was a tax collector; we're told that in chapter 9, verse 9, and again in chapter 10, verse 3.  

What does that mean, a tax collector?  Well, let me give you a little sketch of how taxes worked in the Roman Empire.  The Romans collected taxes through a system they called “Tax Farming,” a system of tax franchises.  At the very top were the Roman equestrians, the noblemen in Rome who bid for the right to collect taxes over entire provinces.  So, in other words, you put in a bid, an offer to Rome saying, “That if you give me the right, the privilege to collect taxes there, this is how much I'll pay Rome.”  It was a lucrative business, and so there were many who were willing to step up and do this.  Then the equestrians, in turn, subdivided the province, if they won the bid, they subdivided the province, and they contracted with ‘publicani’ or chief tax collectors.  One of them is identified in the New Testament by the name of Zacchaeus.  So, the ‘publicani’ would have been over sections of that province that they had the tax rights for.  And then the chief tax collectors, the ‘publicani’ over those regions, in turn, sold the rights for cities and so forth. 

Now, here's the big problem with the Roman tax system.  If you were a citizen down at the bottom end of the food chain, you had no idea what your taxes were really supposed to be.  You know, in our world, in our country, we know that if you make a certain amount of money, you fall into this percentage of the tax bracket.  There was no direction like that in the Roman Empire.  So, you can see, immediately, that there was a huge opportunity for extortion and stealing at literally every level of the system.  And that's why people wanted into it; it was lucrative because not only did you make the money you were contracted to make, but you could charge more and make a lot more money. 

There were three main centers of taxation in Israel.  Caesarea, on the coast of the Mediterranean, Jericho, and Capernaum, where Matthew worked.  Capernaum straddled an international highway that ran from Egypt in the south all the way up to Mesopotamia, the Mesopotamian Valley, in the north.  Most traffic going north or south through the land of Israel went through Capernaum.  And guess what?  There sat Matthew!  Based on the lucrative location of his tax business and the large size of his home, after he's converted, he has this huge party and invites all of his friends to come; it shows he was very wealthy, had a very large home.  He had grown wealthy at the expense of others.  He clearly was consumed by greed because he had partnered with the Roman oppressors in order to satisfy his own appetite for money.  And how did he get wealthy?  Tax collectors got rich through dishonesty, by extorting money, bribery, pilfering from their employers.  And if a person didn't have the money to pay his or her taxes that was a figure that was arbitrarily set upon them, guess what?  The tax collector was kind enough to loan them money at an exorbitantly high interest rate.  Like the Mafia, tax collectors attracted all kinds of criminals and thugs around them, enforcers to help support their industry.

That brings us to another thing we know about Matthew, and that is that he was definitely not religious.  How do we know that?  Because the very moment he became a tax collector in first century Israel, he was excommunicated from the Synagogue, and he could not go to the Temple.  He couldn't enter the Temple where the Jewish people normally went.  That's why, in the story Jesus tells, the tax collector is outside beating his chest because he wasn't allowed in; he was excommunicated from all of that because he had become a traitor to his people, a pariah to his family.  He was alien from the God of Israel because he had aligned with Israel's enemies.  And tax collectors were infamous for their wild lives.  They engaged literally in everything that their money could buy.  It was so bad that under first century Jewish Law, if a tax collector as much as touched your house, it was rendered unclean. That's the kind of man Matthew was.  

But of course, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record his amazing, astounding conversion.  Turn to Matthew, chapter 9; Matthew, chapter 9, verse 9, “As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax collector's booth; and He said to him, ‘Follow Me!’  And he got up and followed Him.”  It's astounding!  Matthew's immediate willingness to leave everything shows that he had already heard Jesus teach.  That was true. He lived in the same town as Jesus’ ministry headquarters.  He had undoubtedly witnessed His miracles firsthand or at least heard firsthand accounts of those miracles because many were healed in the city of Capernaum.  And he had heard Jesus' remarkable personal claims. And Matthew, in that crisis of that moment, when Jesus said to him, “I want you to abandon your life of sin and follow Me,” Matthew believed and followed Him.

By the way, that was a lot different than Peter, James, and John.  When you left your fishing business, you could always go back.  But if you're Matthew and you walk away from your tax franchise, it's forever gone–he left it all!  After his conversion he hosted a dinner at his home for all of his friends and associates. Look at Matthew, chapter 9, verse 10, “Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, (Mark tells us that was in Matthew's house.) behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples.”  Matthew wanted his full circle of business acquaintances and friends to meet Jesus.  He wanted them to follow Him as he had come to do.  And then, of course, we know that Jesus chose Matthew as an Apostle.

It's interesting when you read the Gospels, Matthew is not a major character at all.  In fact, he's only mentioned in two ways.  He's mentioned at his conversion, and he's mentioned in the list of the Apostles and he's always number 7 or 8.  He wasn't well known, he wasn't out there like Peter or James or John, but here's a man who was amazingly saved and he's given us the first Gospel.  He's last mentioned in the New Testament in the upper room in Acts 1:13, waiting for Pentecost.  Tradition gives us a lot of conflicting details about his life after the New Testament.  After ministering in Judea and Jerusalem, he likely went to Syria and to the church in Antioch there in Syria.  But others say, “No, he went to Ethiopia, to Parthia, to Persia.”  We can't be sure.  Apocryphal Roman Catholic documents claim that he was martyred, but the evidence suggests that he died a natural death.  So, it was the Apostle Matthew, one of the Twelve, who wrote this Gospel.

But to whom did he write?  Let's consider a second crucial issue.  We've seen the author.  Let's, secondly, look at “The Versions of Matthew,” because Matthew originally wrote his Gospel in two languages.  First of all, there was Matthew “In Aramaic.”  Again, Papias, writing in 130 A.D., said, “Matthew wrote the Oracles (meaning his Gospel) in the Hebrew, that is the Aramaic dialect.”  Now to whom would Matthew have written?  Well, the audience would have been the Jews in Israel.  Irenaeus, Origen, Eusebius, all testify that Matthew, in Aramaic, was written for Jewish believers living in the land of Palestine.  That was their language and that's where the language was spoken.  Origen writes, “It was prepared for the converts from Judaism.” 

The “Place of Writing.”  Well clearly, it was Israel, probably Jerusalem where Matthew was with the other Apostles.  Again, Eusebius writes, “Matthew, who had at first preached to the Hebrews, (Listen to this) when he was about to go to other people, committed his Gospel to writing in his native tongue and thus compensated those whom he was obliged to leave for the loss of his presence.”  Now with that said, that establishes the date of the writing because we know the Apostles stayed in Jerusalem until the “Jerusalem Council” in Acts 15, and that was around 50 A.D.  So, Matthew, in Aramaic, was likely written shortly after 50 A.D.  We have no copies of Matthew in Aramaic today.  You say, “If there was such a thing, why would we not have copies?”  Well, think about it, Aramaic is a dead language.  Copies didn't need to continue to be made, and so they didn't circulate as the Greek would have.

That brings us then to the second version and that's Matthew “In Greek.”  Now when you examine the language in Matthew's Greek Gospel, it proves that Matthew, in Aramaic, wasn't just translated from Aramaic into Greek; instead, it was likely rewritten in Greek.  A full revision, if you will, almost certainly by Matthew himself since Matthew, in Greek, was accepted as authoritative as written by an Apostle. But, of course, Matthew would have written it in Greek, using the same material, the same content, that's in his Aramaic Gospel.  By the way, that was the very same process that happened with the writings of Josephus; first written in Hebrew or Aramaic and then they were rescinded, they were revised into Greek.  That's what happens here.  Now today, our Greek copies of Matthew's Gospel are the Greek Matthew. 

To whom was he writing, who was the “Audience?”  Greek-speaking Jews and Gentiles.  The “Place.”  We don't know but probably, possibly anyway, Antioch in Syria.  Clearly, there were many Jewish Christians who left Jerusalem and went there.  Acts 11 talks about that and that's also, remember, where the church was that supported Paul on his three missionary journeys, Antioch of Syria.  So, that may very well have been the place of writing.  

“When was it written?”  Well, it was written before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. because there's no mention of the destruction of the temple, and there are several places where it would have been ideal to mention it if it had been destroyed.  Irenaeus says it was written before the deaths of Peter and Paul, so that means likely between the mid 50's and the mid 60's A.D.  

Now that brings us to a third crucial issue and this is truly a crucial issue, and that is, “The Theme of Matthew,” The theme of Matthew.  What is the main point of Matthew's Gospel?  Well, this becomes apparent in the very first verse. Look at chapter 1, verse 1, again, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus.”  Now he could have described Jesus in a lot of different ways, but notice how he describes Him, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”  Matthew's primary goal is to prove that Jesus is Israel's Messiah and King; that He's the fulfillment of God's Old Testament Messianic Promise, that He is the rightful heir to David's throne.  Here's how I want to put it for our study, and you'll hear this many times through our study of Matthew's gospel.  This is how I would put the theme of this gospel, “Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah of the Hebrew Scripture, the divine Savior and King.”  Every one of those words is important, and as this Gospel unfolds, you will see Matthew set out to prove each one of those points again and again throughout this Gospel.  That's the theme of Matthew.

A fourth and final overarching issue we need to consider this morning concerns “The Goals of Matthew.”  Why did Matthew write?  Let me put it differently.  “What goals did he have in mind in presenting this theme of Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah of the Hebrew Scriptures?  What was he hoping to accomplish?”  These are really important.  Let me just give you several goals Matthew had in mind.  Number one, he had a “Historical” goal or purpose and that was to provide “A Record of Jesus' Extraordinary Life.”  It makes sense, doesn't it?  I mean, think about what happens in the Book of Acts.  Jesus ascends, and then in Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, 3,000 Jewish people are saved. One day, the church goes from 120 to 3,000.  By the time you get to Acts 4:4, the church has increased to 5,000 men, not counting women and children.  By Acts 6:1, the church has so multiplied that it likely consisted of some 20,000 Jewish converts.  And this magnificent record of the life of Jesus Christ our Lord was initially written for them.

Matthew served in Jerusalem among the Jewish people, and as he prepared to leave and to go to Syrian Antioch, he wrote them this gospel to remind them, as an eyewitness, to give them all of the details of the magnificent life of Jesus our Lord.  In the early church, this was the most read and the most quoted Gospel.  Why?  Because of its unique blend of narrative and teaching.  Initially, for the Jewish converts in Pentecost and beyond, and then when he moved to Syrian Antioch, for the Jewish and Gentile believers in that church and beyond. 

There's a second goal that he had, an “Apologetical” goal or purpose, and that is to provide “A Defense of Jesus' Messianic Claims.”  Again, look at verse 1, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.”  He wants us to have a defense of those claims.  Matthew writes to prove that Jesus is the promised Old Testament Messiah.  The Church Fathers weren't simply randomly choosing to make Matthew first in the New Testament; they intentionally placed Matthew first in the New Testament because they believed that the Gospels should be first, and they believed that Matthew should be first among the Gospels.  Why?  Because they believed it was written first, but also because Matthew functions as a natural bridge from the Old Testament to the New Testament.  And that bridge is the promised Messiah.  It's very interesting when you look at how Matthew uses the Old Testament, Matthew directly quotes the Old Testament 54 times. And he alludes to or has verbal parallels to the Old Testament 262 other times.  That's not by my count; that's by the count of the United Bible Society Greek Testament.  More than any other gospel, Matthew shows the Old Testament prophecy, the Old Testament setting, of the events in Jesus' life. 

For example, it begins immediately after the genealogy.  You come down to chapter 1, verse 23, and he shows the conception and birth of the Messiah as proven by Isaiah the Prophet.  Chapter 2, verse 6, he proves from Micah's Prophecy that his birthplace would be in Bethlehem, and on and on it goes throughout this book.  He wrote, in fact, with an apologetical goal.

Thirdly, he had a “Polemical” goal or purpose; it was “A Response to Jesus' Jewish Critics.”  This Gospel answers attacks leveled against Christ and His Gospel by His enemies, especially the Jewish leaders.  For example, Matthew is the only Gospel to include the record of the Jewish leaders bribing the guards at Jesus' tomb to lie and say they were asleep.  Why does he include that?  Listen to Matthew 28, verse 15, “…this story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day.”  Matthew includes this to set the record straight and he does so many times throughout this letter to respond to Jesus' enemies, to His critics. 

Number four, he writes with a “Theological” goal or purpose, to provide “A Description of Jesus' Messianic Kingdom.”  Matthew wrote to define the kind of kingdom that Jesus came to announce.

The word ‘kingdom’ occurs fifty-six times in this Gospel, more than any other gospel.  “Kingdom of Heaven” appears” thirty-two times.  “Kingdom of God” four times.  This is about the “Kingdom of God” mediated through Jesus Christ.  And Jesus taught that His Kingdom had two aspects.  First of all, there was “A Present Spiritual Kingdom,” right now, Jesus reigns.  For example, chapter 12, verse 28, Jesus says, “…the kingdom of God has come upon you.”  “Right now, the kingdom's here, embodied in Me,” Jesus said (Paraphrase).  There's a spiritual aspect to the kingdom.  If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you're a part of His kingdom, His spiritual kingdom.  He rules over your heart.  He rules over the hearts of all of those who have acknowledged Him as Savior and Lord.

But he also taught about the future physical kingdom.  In chapter 8, verse 11, he said at the end time, “…many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”  It's future. And then it'll be not just spiritual, but it'll be physical, geopolitical as well.  He will reign on this earth for a 1,000 years and then on a new planet forever.  Chapter 13, verse 40, “…at the end of the age,” verse 43 says, “...THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father,” it's in the future. 

Matthew wrote, number 5, with a “Pastoral” goal and that was to provide “A Manual for Jesus' Authentic Followers.”  I love the “Sermon on the Mount.”  You know what the “Sermon on the Mount” is?  It's Jesus saying to His disciples, “Let me tell you what it's like to live as one of My disciples in my spiritual kingdom.  Let me tell you how you should think.  Let me tell you how you should speak.  Let me tell you how you should live.  Let me tell you what your priorities should be.”  Throughout this Gospel, Christian, you're going to learn how to live like a citizen of Jesus' spiritual kingdom because He wants you to know!

There's a sixth and final goal and that is an “Evangelical,” or we could say evangelistic goal or purpose.  This Gospel is in essence an invitation, “An invitation to Jesus' Kingdom.”  In Matthew, chapter 7, at the end of the “Sermon on the Mount,” He says, “Enter!  Enter My kingdom but do so through the right gate.” (Summary paraphrase)  This gospel is going to tell you how to find that gate because you see, Jesus warns there are a lot of false teachers out there, and there is a lot of false teaching that are pointing to wrong gates to get into Jesus' spiritual kingdom.  He says, “Don't be fooled.  I'm going to tell you how to enter the narrow gate into life” (Paraphrase).  This Gospel is going to provide that.  If you're not a Christian, Jesus is going to tell you how you can belong to His spiritual kingdom.  He invites you to come.  I love Matthew 11, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”  What does He mean?  He means rest from the guilt and penalty of your sin, just like with Matthew.  Matthew is a living example of this Gospel.  It's an invitation to you.  You think you're too bad for Jesus to save you?  Compare yourself to Matthew.  Jesus intends, through this Gospel, to say to you what He said to Matthew that day.  He intends to say to you, “…abandon your sin and follow Me.”  That's the invitation that He will extend to you through this Gospel.

I challenge you, as we begin our study of this magnificent Book, I challenge you today to pray with me.  I prayed it this morning, and I ask you to pray with me that God will use our study of Matthew's Gospel to accomplish all of those magnificent goals in your life and in the life of our church.  Next Sunday, Lord willing, we'll begin our verse-by-verse study of this amazing Gospel. 

Let's pray together.  Our Father, we truly are amazed at your goodness in giving us this Book.  Lord, I pray that you would use it for all of these goals in our lives.  Lord, I pray for those who are here who have not repented and believed in Jesus; may even this morning, through the message I've preached, may You call to them as You called to Matthew, “Leave your sin and come, follow Me.”  

Father, I pray for the rest of us who know and love Jesus already.  Lord, use this Gospel to accomplish these other goals in our lives.  Teach us how to live like members of His spiritual kingdom so that we honor Him with our lives.  Lord, we devote our future study of this magnificent treasure to You, and I ask You to use it in all of its fullness in our lives individually and in this church.  We pray in Jesus, the Messiah's name, Amen.