Author Phillip Yancey spoke for me when he recalled the scene—General Norman Schwarzkopf's final briefing of the Gulf War. America was glued to its TV sets. The general personified a new national confidence. The man was utterly engaging! With a proper sternness he described the swift offensive operation that caught the elite Republican Guard asleep on duty. With obvious pride he described how his soldiers had routed the hordes of Iraqi troops. With emotion he described the liberating of little Kuwait. With unabashed humor he chuckled about his allied forces' abilities to drive all the way to Baghdad, had that been necessary. With compassion he thanked the Kuwaiti people for their patience. And with humility he thanked our allies, noting especially our traditional friends, the British. It was a grand moment. America was back.
Committed to his mission. Confident in his plan. Diplomatic in posture. Kind in attitude. Strong where necessary. And so utterly proud of his troops—the GIs who had gotten the job done. The general's performance touched me deeply. As a soldier from another, less proud war, I remember thinking out loud, “I would follow that man into the alleys of Baghdad any day!” Writer Yancey, watching that same performance said it best, “That's exactly the kind of man you want to lead a war!”
Flash back now to another scene. There you see another commanding figure reaching right into the heart of a lonely, embarrassed human being: “Ma'am, if you knew who it was who is speaking to you, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” And find yourself saying, again in the reflective words of Phil Yancey, “That's exactly the kind of man you want to save the world!”
Yes. Jesus Christ is exactly the kind of man you want to save the world!
That is what the Gospel of Matthew is all about. Take a long, thoughtful look at Jesus! Here is the kind of man you would follow anywhere. The emperor Napoleon saw the incomparable Jesus:
Everything in Christ astonishes me. His spirit overwhelms me, and his will confounds me. Between him and … whoever else in the world … there is no possible comparison. He is truly a being by himself … I search in vain in history to find (anyone) similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the Gospel. Neither history, nor humanity, nor the ages, nor nature offer me anything with which I am able to compare (him) or explain (him). Here (in Christ) is everything extraordinary.
It is no accident that Matthew appears as the first book of the New Testament. Matthew serves as the hinge upon which the Testaments pivot. Matthew is the gateway to the New Testament with the strongest of closing connections to the Old Testament. Matthew explains in “mini-Bible” form God's entire plan of the ages from Genesis to Revelation. To misunderstand the Messiah as presented by Matthew is to misunderstand much of the plan of God as it unfolds in the New Testament.
Matthew looks back and refers to Hebrew prophecies about sixty times (“was fulfilled” and “might be fulfilled”). He also looks forward by dealing not only with Messiah's coming and his ministry, but also his future plan for the kingdom, and for the building of his church. Matthew is therefore an essential link between the Old and New Testaments. Without Matthew, neither testament can be easily or fully understood.
You might ask yourself, “If Matthew is so important, why are there three other Gospels—Mark, Luke, and John?”
Four Gospels incorporate a variety of perspectives and so provide a more complete picture of Jesus. His uniqueness is part of the reason there are four different Gospels. Even the inspired writers of Scripture cannot exhaust his majesty. You might liken them to a symphony which has numerous melodic themes that are woven into a harmonious whole.
The following table summarizes some of the key differences between the four Gospels.
Writer |
Written to Whom |
About Jesus As |
Method or Approach |
Featuring |
| Matthew | Jews | King | Synthetic | Discourses |
| Mark | Romans | Servant | Chronological | Miracles |
| Luke | Greeks | Son of Man | Historical | Parables |
| John | All mankind | Son of God | Theological | Personal interviews |
Matthew, a Jew, wrote to the Jewish nation (approximately thirty years after Jesus' ministry) about their long-expected Messiah-King. Naturally, a Jewish audience familiar with the Old Testament wanted some answers. How could Jesus be the Messiah and end up crucified? And, if Jesus really was the “King of the Jews,” what happened to the kingdom? Matthew answered their questions, relying heavily on their Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah-King. Matthew's purpose was to demonstrate that Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth was, in deed and truth, the promised Messiah of Old Testament prophecy.
Matthew proved with a careful genealogy, easily confirmed in temple records of the time, that Jesus was the only rightful heir to the throne through his earthly guardian-father Joseph. Matthew moved then through Jesus' life in a thematic or synthesizing way (rather than simply historical/ chronological), drawing together similar thematic elements (e.g., many miracles are lumped together in chaps. 8-10) from different times in Jesus' ministry, in order to leave a systematic, comprehensive, and conclusive picture that Jesus was indeed the Messiah-King.
Matthew. Some called him Levi, but his friends knew him as Matthew. He was a tax collector for the Roman government. His status in Jewish society was even lower than a Gentile, for he robbed and betrayed his own people. No one could have guessed the Father was carefully preparing a writer of holy Scriptures.
Matthew recorded his own call to follow Jesus as one of the twelve disciples (Matt. 9:9-13). With his attention to detail, Matthew was probably the group journalist, keeping records of Jesus' teaching and actions. Some time in the A.D. 50s or 60s, two or three decades after Jesus had finished his work on earth, Matthew's record-keeping skills merged with his love for the Old Testament to produce his Gospel account—a solid argument for the identity of Jesus as the promised Messiah, written for Jewish readers throughout the Mediterranean world.
Matthew's Readers. In a sense, when you read the Bible you are reading someone else's mail. It is written for you but it was not written to you. So, if you are going to truly understand someone else's mail, you need to know something about them and their context. Matthew wrote primarily to a Jewish audience. Because the Old Testament was the Bible of the first-century Jews, all of Matthew's references to it were intended to show them that Jesus was the culmination of God's plan of all history, the completion and perfection of the Old Testament covenants.
Matthew's Central Message. Matthew wrote, above all else, to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the promised Messiah-King (the sovereign Son of David and the sacrificial Son of Abraham). Matthew was also deeply concerned with the restoration of God's kingdom. He made a point of using the phrase kingdom of heaven thirty-two times, and kingdom of God four times, and he frequently showed through Jesus' words and actions that Jesus had the royal authority of God Almighty. Kingdom (basileia) is a word and a concept at the very heart of Matthew's Gospel, for he wrote specifically to the chosen Jewish people about the kingdom.
Matthew's Key Verse. If we were to pick out one verse that captures the main message of Matthew, it would have to be Matthew 27:37, “THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” This man, Jesus, grew up in the middle of nowhere (Nazareth) with a couple of nobodies (Joseph and Mary who?). Yet, he was the sole legal and rightful heir to the throne of Israel!
Matthew's Basic Structure. The first four chapters of Matthew serve as the narrative introduction to Matthew's Gospel. The last three chapters (26-28) balance the first four as narrative conclusion and serve as a magnificent climax to the earthly ministry of the Messiah-King. The middle twenty-one chapters (5-25) trace Jesus' ministry, featuring his five discourses as major pillars. The pace of chapters 1-4 and 26-28 is quicker and is not interspersed with parables, conflicts, or the frequent short teachings found in the central chapters (5-25).
Matt. 1-4 |
Matthew 5-25 Jesus' Discourses (Sermon Teaching) |
Matt. 26-28 | ||||
| Opening Narrative or | 5-7 Sermon on the Mount or | 10 Commission of the Twelve or | 13 Kingdom Parables or | 18 Teaching on the Church or | 24-25 Olivet Discourse or | Closing Narrative or |
| The Introduction | The Kingdom Constitution | The Kingdom's Foundational Leaders | The Pursuit of the Kingdom (in the King's Absence) | The Relational Principles in the Kingdom | The Kingdom's Future | The Climax |
Historical Setting of Matthew. In the development of God's plan over the centuries, he brought his people to a particular point of readiness, about 430 B.C., when Malachi, the last of the Old Testament books, was written. Then God simply stopped speaking. For four hundred years there was no prophet, no word from God! During this time between the Testaments, God's Jewish people (at least the faithful among them) had begun to wonder what had happened to the kingdom.
One world empire had succeeded another. Cyrus, the king of Persia, had released the Jews from captivity in 536 B.C., allowing them to return and restore their home and their national worship. Alexander the Great ended Persian domination of Israel in 333 B.C., extending the Greek Empire with its language and culture throughout most of the known world. Long after the Greek Empire had fallen, Greek was still the common language throughout the Mediterranean world. The result was that in the first century A.D. the truth of Jesus the Messiah was written in a literary form called Gospels in the Greek language—easily understood by persons of many nations.
Israel enjoyed more than a century of self-rule beginning in 167 B.C., after a successful revolt against Greece. During this time they developed their system of synagogues, where the faithful gathered each Sabbath to hear the Scriptures taught. Here also they provided formal education for young boys from devout Jewish families. The Pharisees were the theologically conservative leaders of the synagogues. At the other end of the Jewish religious spectrum were the Sadducees, the more politically-connected leaders of the temple system in Jerusalem.
In 63 B.C., the Roman general Pompey and his armies besieged and conquered Jerusalem. While Israel was allowed to continue their religious practices, they paid dearly in taxes and in the loss of national freedom. Some Jews, primarily the political opportunists, allied themselves with the civil powers and became known as the Herodians.
The next few decades were fearful and uncertain for the Jewish people. Herod the Great was appointed ruler of Judea (the portion of Israel around Jerusalem) in 40 B.C. and three years later firmly established his rule. During the thirty-six years of his rule, he was given to perversion and paranoia. In fits of jealous rage he killed his wife, two sons, and several other family members whom he perceived as threats to his throne. This was the Herod who was so upset over the Magi's report of a newborn king that he ordered the massacre of children in his search for Jesus (Matt. 2:1-18). Herod the Great died in 4 B.C. His son Herod Antipater was the one before whom Jesus stood trial (Luke 23:6-12).
Ruled by numerous warring pagan nations over the years, most recently Rome, Israel had lost track of its king and of the kingdom. Pagan political leaders ruled. False religious leaders held sway. And the people were languishing in disarray, particularly spiritual disarray.
But during those four silent centuries, God, though prophetically silent, had never stopped working. He was, in fact, setting the stage for the climax of his plan, the coming of his Son. With the passing of those four centuries “the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman … to redeem those under law” (Gal. 4:4-5). The fullness of time had come in the pagan world. The Greeks had spread their magnificent language far and wide; the Romans had built their unifying roads and their legions provided their quieting peace. The fullness of time had come in the nation of Israel. The priesthood had hit an all-time low. The fullness of time had come. The world was about to hear from God like never before!
The life and ministry of Jesus was carefully orchestrated from the heavens. And it was Matthew who put it all together for us. In order to truly understand Matthew, we must see where this Gospel fits in God's plan of the ages. Let us look at a few highlights of God's plan as it unfolded, first in heaven and then on earth, during the centuries before Jesus was born. Remember, Matthew is all about Jesus the king and his kingdom. Let us take a little closer look at that kingdom.
The Kingdom of God. The larger context of Matthew's Gospel is a battle of cosmic proportion. From Genesis to Revelation, the great unifying theme of the Bible is the kingdom of God. In fact, Jesus told his disciples to pray, first and foremost, to his Father about his Father's kingdom.
This, then, is how you should pray:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9-10).
That is the fulfillment of the Father's dream on this planet among human beings—his kingdom realized on earth as it is in heaven. That is at the core of the Bible from beginning to end. There will come a day when God will actually rule on this planet as he does in heaven!
Almighty God rules the universe in sovereign authority. Like any kingdom, God's kingdom is a realm governed by a ruler who reigns over subject-citizens through governing principles or laws. And God's kingdom is multifaceted. He rules in time and space. He rules in eternity. He rules in the material world, and he rules in the spiritual world. But his rule on this planet and among a portion of the angel-spirit world has experienced a temporary rebellion.
Further, in his wisdom God often chooses to rule his kingdom through regents or subordinate rulers. In eternity past before creating the material world, he created intelligent beings, angels (Job 38:4-7), to exercise authority in his name. When he created our world, he indicated man should rule over the planet (Gen. 1:26).
Originally, in the primordial world God's will was never questioned and was always done. Certainly it was never challenged. It is this absolute sovereignty that is the critical heart of the kingdom of God. A great many scholars and theologians have spent significant time and energy wrestling over just how the kingdom is to be defined. Simply put, the kingdom of God is the realm over which he rules. It is his exercise of total sovereign authority over all his subjects and includes this earth and its inhabitants. It is this extension of God's actual sovereignty over all life on this planet (like it already is in heaven) that Jesus instructed his followers to pray into reality (Matt. 6:9).
God's kingdom is both eternal and universal. There is absolutely nothing outside the purview of his sovereign authority—“The LORD is king for ever and ever” (Ps. 10:16). “The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all” (Ps. 103:19).
It is therefore also both temporal and material, or local. “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15).
But somewhere between the eternity past of Psalm 10 and the temporal future of Revelation 11, the kingdom experienced rebellion. These subordinate authorities, these mere lieutenants, both angelic and human, at different times and in different ways, demonstrated an incredible capacity for rebellion. Rebellion thus forms the backdrop for the dramatic conflict—the battle—that unfolds in the pages of Scripture. An overarching question is, How will God, this king of glory, defeat the minions of the Evil One in this battle between God and Satan, between good and evil, between life and death, between heaven and hell?
The Bible is the story of God's divinely determined plan to crush the rebellion and reclaim the kingdom in its entirety. The Gospel of Matthew is at the very center of this great story. And, as we will see, this term kingdom becomes a central and critical element in understanding the Gospel of Matthew.
The Cosmic Battle. Let us step back and put this all together in basic terms. Somewhere in the far reaches of eternity past there was only God. In his own wisdom, according to his own counsel, he added the first forms of created intelligence—angels, magnificent inhabitants of the spirit world, myriads of them. We know that the most magnificent of all these creatures, the chief angel, was Lucifer, sometimes referred to as the Star of the Morning, or the Son of the Dawn. These angelic beings were part of the great timeless and boundless kingdom of God.
We do not know a lot of details, but we do know the big picture. Many believe that the chief angel, the acting prime minister if you will, rebelled because of deep-seated pride: “Wickedness was found in you” (Ezek. 28:12-19). This mighty celestial being became enamored with himself and infatuated with the concept of his becoming independent of Almighty God. He decided he would become “like the Most High” (Isa. 14:12-15). Under his arrogant and usurping leadership, about a third of the angels rebelled against God (Rev. 12:1-9), forming a kingdom of their own, a counterfeit kingdom of darkness (Isa. 14:12). This evil angel became, of course, God's chief adversary, the very meaning of the name Satan.
The question naturally arises, If God is sovereign, why did he let this happen? Why did he not just destroy the devil and his kingdom of darkness? It is an appropriate question. And it has an excellent answer. God has a plan to do just that! It will be in his own time and in his own way. That is what the kingdom plan of God is all about! God sovereignly allowed the formation of this counterfeit kingdom of darkness, but it was formed through the voluntary initiative of Satan, not God's creation. These rebels are on a leash and God is using them for his own purposes—to glorify his own name, if by no other means than sheer contrast. The kingdom of darkness serves as an enticing alternative. Each human being has to make a choice between the two kingdoms. Ultimately, only those choosing to follow the true king will live with him forever.
Some time after the fall of Satan, God created the material world and planet earth as a temporal and material reflection (microcosm) of God's eternal and spiritual kingdom. The capstone of that creation was the human being made “in the image of God” and with the full capacity to choose for himself. Satan, God's cosmic adversary, and in direct competition with him, seized upon the opportunity to tempt the human beings to defy God even as he himself had done. And they fell for it. The devil's schemes have served ever since as a giant polarizing magnet to attract the self-serving.
Consequently, this dark kingdom seems often to be the dominating force on this planet. But only for a time. When our parents Adam and Eve sinned, two enormous consequences set in: (1) every human being was born a sinner separated from the very God they were to reflect, and (2) the planet fell under the dark rule of the great usurper himself, Satan, now known as “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Eph. 2:2). Satan succeeded temporarily in besmirching God's image and reputation.
The Bible then spells out God's battle plan for history—how he will meet and defeat the challenge of Satan by (1) redeeming the sinful people, and (2) reclaiming the tarnished planet. He will see to it, over thousands of years as it turns out, that the devil is destroyed, his insurrection is put down, and “the kingdom of the world … become[s] the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” (Rev. 11:15). Christ, the Father's Son and champion of righteousness, is King of kings and Lord of lords. No book of the Bible speaks so consistently of this kingdom as does the Gospel of Matthew.
Paradise Lost. The two major consequences of man's fall created two problems God would address in manifesting his glory. These two problems— (1) the need to redeem the people and (2) the need to reclaim the planet— were opportunities for him to show himself sovereign and to demonstrate, in ultimate terms, “the manifold wisdom of God … to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3:10-11). Just how would he redeem the people from sin? And how would he reclaim the planet from Satan? In a word, covenants!
The Covenants. Those two problems became the basis for the major promises, or covenants, in the Old Testament. Two covenants in particular stand out—the primary Abrahamic Covenant and its subsidiary Davidic Covenant. Those two promises, made to two men, became the two tracks which carry the weight of Old Testament history and New Testament hope. God made a covenant with Abraham. And he made one with David.
God promised Abraham that he would bless all nations through Abraham's descendants. A thousand years later, God promised David he would have a son—a descendant—through whom the planet would be reclaimed. David's son would be a sovereign Son who would rule over the planet. And when those two promises were completely fulfilled, earth's history would have run its course and become “the kingdom of our Lord.” Those two covenants come together in one person, Christ Jesus. That is why the first verse of the Matthew's Gospel is so explosive! This is “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matt. 1:1).
Remember these two tracks as you study Matthew: (1) How to redeem the people from sin, and (2) How to reclaim the kingdom from Satan.
Let us take a closer look at these two covenants and embody God's plan to reclaim his perfect kingdom—that is, to bring everything back into subjection to his will.
God's Covenant with Abraham. The primary covenant of God was given about 2000 B.C. to a man named Abraham and is thus called the Abrahamic Covenant. Its terms are covered in Genesis 12-17. In this covenant, God unconditionally promised Abraham:
This was the first step toward paradise regained!
There is one other episode in the life of Abraham that is critical to our understanding of Matthew and God's plan of history. In Genesis 22, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son, the only rightful heir, whom he loved dearly. When Abraham demonstrated his willingness to make even this greatest of sacrifices in obedience, God stepped in and provided a ram to sacrifice in the place of Abraham's son. This event illustrated two aspects of God's plan for regaining paradise. First, while the sin of God's people requires death as its price, this price could be satisfied by the death of a substitute. Second, the redemption (buying back) of God's people would be accomplished by a sacrificial Son (descendant) of Abraham. When Christ ascended the mount of offering (Calvary), however, there was no substitute ram for the Son, for Jesus is the Lamb of God.
God's Covenant with David. Later, about 1000 B.C., in the unfolding of God's covenant, we come across a further detail respecting the king who is to rule. God revealed the information to Israel's second human king, David, in the form of a subsidiary covenant with him. This is called the Davidic Covenant. It is laid out for us in 2 Samuel 7:1-16. In it, God unconditionally promised David that he would have a son (descendant) on the throne of his kingdom forever, and that God himself would have a Father-Son relationship with the king who would descend from David.
It is important to ask a key question here in our understanding of Matthew. In the context of God's promise to David, the king of Israel, do you think David would have understood this promise to pertain to the throne of Israel? Of course, David would have understood it this way. It was a plain and literal statement. Israel would rule the world with David's descendant as king. God was clearly and literally promising David that his descendant, the king of the nation of Israel, would rule over the world. In the future, when this planet has fulfilled its purpose, it will be ruled by Christ, the king of Israel.
Yes, Jesus is also the Lord of the church, but the church is not Israel. The church has not replaced Israel. It is grafted into the future kingdom as part of it (Rom. 11:1-29), but it has not taken Israel's place. The church is not the fulfillment of the promise to David, though it is part of it. The church and Israel are two distinct entities, and God has not yet finished with the nation of Israel. Matthew's careful use of the two different terms—kingdom (basileia) and church (ekklesia)—is strong evidence that kingdom and church are distinct. Matthew will demonstrate this distinction clearly.
The Covenant Completed in Christ. One thousand years after David, and two thousand years after Abraham, Matthew set out to write his Gospel. However, Matthew knew he was writing more than a simple personal biography. Matthew pulled together all the strands of God's eternal plan—laid out over the preceding millennia—and demonstrated how they found their final completion in Jesus the Messiah.
So the New Testament opens with the electrifying words of Matthew 1:1: “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
Jesus Christ is the sovereign Son of David, the sacrificial Son of Abraham, the Lion of Judah, and Lamb of God! He is the only person in all the world who brings together in one person the two great promises of the Old Testament.
Matthew introduced Jesus as “the son of David, the son of Abraham” and he did it in that order, reversing their chronological appearance in history. The two titles can be seen as a basic outline of Matthew's Gospel. Basically, Matthew deals in chapters 1-12 with Jesus as the sovereign Son of David, the reclaiming king and Lion of Judah. In chapters 13-28 he presents Jesus as the sacrificial Son of Abraham, the redeeming Savior and Lamb of God—an astounding claim to the Jewish mind. So Matthew proceeded, in his very first chapter, to document Jesus' physical descent from both of these historic figures (Matt. 1:1-17). As Matthew goes on to demonstrate, Jesus alone could fulfill God's covenant promises as both the sovereign Son of David and the sacrificial Son of Abraham.
Only Jesus the God-Man, of all David's descendants, and of all people on earth, had the authority of God Almighty to bring the kingdom program to its proper order and perfection. Only he could reclaim the fallen planet.
Only Jesus the God-Man, of all Abraham's descendants, and of all people on earth, could live a sinless life, incurring no debt of his own, to offer himself as the object of God's righteous wrath, substituting himself in our place, and paying the debt we owe. Only he could redeem God's fallen people.
Paradise Regained. While we have yet to see the kingdom in its full restoration, we can rest assured that paradise regained is as good as done. Jesus came the first time as the sacrificial Son of Abraham to die for the redemption of the people. He will come a second time as the sovereign Son of David to reclaim the planet and rule perfectly over it. Earth will fulfill its original purpose. Under the new covenant, completed in Jesus, we who are his people by our faith in him are promised:
And that is the Gospel of Matthew!