Book 40 The Book Of Matthew
Who wrote the Book of Matthew: Matthew
When was it written: 70 A.D.—almost forty years after Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.
Who Was Matthew
Matthew was a tax collector in Capernaum. His given name was Levi and he was the son of Alphaeus. This is a different Alphaeus than the father of James the Lesser and Thaddeus (two of the other twelve disciples).
Jews considered tax collectors to be traitors and enemies because they were most often Jewish people working for the Roman government against their fellow Jews. They were known for their dishonesty and stealing from the Jews by demanding more taxes than were actually owed.
For Jesus to call Matthew to be a disciple—one of his closest friends and confidants—was a slap in the face to the lowly but very Jewish fishermen (Peter, Andrew, James, and John) and Bartholomew, who was a direct descendant of King David. But Jesus saw beyond the obvious into Matthew’s true heart.
He saw the desire for truth and the spirit of conviction and strength to take that truth to the masses.
Matthew’s account of the life and ministry of Jesus is detailed and verbatim (Jesus’ own words) throughout much of the book. Some might wonder how this can be since
Some of the incidents in Matthew took place prior to Matthew’s being called and
Matthew didn’t write the book until long after the incidents had taken place. Given Matthew’s social status (well-educated and prominent), his attention to detail, and his ‘target audience’ in writing, it is only reasonable to assume he would have spent a considerable amount of time talking to Jesus; asking him what he said.
And because Jesus is Jesus, he would have had no trouble recalling his own words.
We must also remember that the Bible is the inspired word of God. Everything on its pages is just as God needs and wants it to be.
Matthew’s Purpose In Writing
While all four gospels that record the ministry, miracles, and messages of Jesus are in harmony with one another and none of them contradict the others in any way, they are written by different men, so they each have a different perspective or emphasis. Matthew’s target audience was the general Jewish population.
Matthew’s primary objective was to prove to his Jewish peers and readers that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied about by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, and all the other prophets of the Old Testament.
Matthew’s use of Old Testament prophesies, references to the Law of Moses, and repeated use of phrases like “kingdom of God” and “kingdom of heaven” is his way of relating the Gospel to the Jewish community in a way that coincides with their teachings and history rather than contradicting or opposing it.
What Does Matthew Tell Us About Jesus
Matthew’s recordation of the Gospel begins with the genealogy of Jesus—something that would definitely speak to the Jewish community he was writing for. In reading through the genealogy we should understand that it is more than ‘just’ a bunch of names.
From This Record We Should Come To Understand:
The significance of numbers to God. Fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen generations from David to the exile of Judah to Babylon, and fourteen generations from the exile to the birth of Jesus.
- God doesn’t use perfect people to bring about his perfect plan. In the lineage of Jesus, we have:
- Tamar, whose father-in-law, Judah, slept with her thinking she was a prostitute.
- Rahab, another prostitute who saved the spies, was sent to check out the Promised Land. Rahab was the great-great-grandmother of King David.
- Ruth is a Moabite widow of an Israelite whose love and devotion to her mother-in-law resulted in love and marriage a second time around.
- David, the man after God’s own heart, also committed adultery, murder, and blatantly disobeyed God…but was always repentant and learned from his mistakes.
- King Manasseh, the son of King Hezekiah, and said to be the most wicked of Judah’s kings.
- Josiah is the youngest and most Godly king of Judah.
- Several generations of lowly tradesmen all the way down to Jacob and Joseph—Jesus’ earthly grandfather and father.
I am also certain that it is no mistake that Jesus’ earthly grandfather and father shared the names of two of God’s most faithful servants. Jacob was the father of the sons from which the twelve tribes of Israel came. Joseph was the second to the youngest of Jacob’s sons.
He was the young man God used in mighty ways after his brothers sold him into slavery and the man who saved his family from starvation by bringing them to Egypt.
Following the record of Jesus’ lineage Matthew gives the basic, but most important details of Jesus’ birth, the visit by the Magi, the family’s escape to Egypt, and their return to Nazareth some three years later.
These events are given to prove they are the fulfillment of prophecy—something the Jewish people put great stock in. But again, Matthew’s goal in writing was to prove Jesus is who he claimed to be while here on earth.
Matthew then jumps from Jesus’ ‘toddlerhood’ into his ministry; beginning with his baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Jesus’ baptism is significant for the following reasons:
His baptism was by immersion to set an example for those who choose to follow him in faith and obedience.
Following Jesus’ baptism, God is audibly heard for the first time in centuries when he says, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
What follows is a list of the remaining highlights from the book of Matthew. Many of these are recorded in at least one of the other gospels, but some are not. And when they are recorded they are not in the same ‘order’ as they are in Matthew.
But again, the gospels never contradict each other. They are simply written from different perspectives for different types of audiences. In other words, what Matthew’s targeted audience would need in order to be convicted and convinced is not what Mark’s intended audience would need.
In all four gospels (and throughout the entire Bible), however, it is the same Jesus who did the same things for the same unselfish reason—to save us from our sins.
- Jesus’ baptism and temptation by Satan: Jesus was brought to the lowest levels of this side of death humans can experience—starvation, dehydration, extreme exhaustion and fatigue, and exposure to the elements. In spite of all of these, however, Jesus was able to refuse Satan’s temptations, which is proof you and I can, too.
- The Sermon on the Mount: The most famous of all of Jesus’ sermons, the Sermon on the Mount is a lesson in morality and integrity that all Christians should pattern their lives after.
- Miracles of Jesus: The book of Matthew is filled with accounts of Jesus’ miracles. Healing those who were blind, deaf, mute, crippled, racked with seizures, demonic possession, and even raising people from the dead, were some of the ways Jesus validated his identity.
- But the miracles he performed weren’t just about proving his identity. Jesus’ miracles came from his heart—a heart aching for his people. Jesus’ compassion and love come from the fact that he had his hand in our creation. He cannot help but love us that deeply—just like a parent cannot help loving their child.
- Jesus’ ministry: Besides the miracles Jesus did, his ministry involved a significant amount of teaching. Often times his teaching was in the form of parables, which are earthly stories with heavenly or spiritual meanings. Matthew and the other gospels record a good number of Jesus’ parables— all of which are relevant still today.
- How Jesus dealt with opposition: Jesus was well-received by the general public in the early stages of his ministry. His popularity ebbed and flowed, however, depending on where he was at and how much he ‘stepped on the toes’ of the people he was preaching to.
The religious leaders, however, never welcomed Jesus. They saw him as a threat to their position of power and sway over the people. Sadly the religious leaders of the day had gotten off track from where they were supposed to be according to the Mosaic Law.
They were more about ritual and ceremony than faith and obedience. They refused to see the truth of Jesus’ fulfillment of prophecy because they didn’t want to. Jesus dealt with this opposition in a number of ways depending on the particular circumstance. He:
- Ignored it and went on about his business
- He put the religious leaders in their place by exposing their piety and ignorance to the true law
- He avoided them
- Jesus’ no-nonsense message to the religious leaders, his disciples, and the general public. He begins by recognizing the fact that the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were in positions of authority.
- But he immediately followed this up by telling the people not to listen to them. He called them out for not practicing what they preached, so to speak, for distorting the Law, and for being men who were prideful, arrogant, and full of false religion. Following this ‘opening statement’ Jesus listed seven (another significant number) woes or warnings to them.
- He doesn’t hold anything back —calling them vipers and snakes (an obvious reference to Satan disguising himself as a snake when he tempted Eve and Adam). He ends this message by referencing his second coming. Afterward, he and his disciples left the crowds and went off to be by themselves.
Once they were alone with Jesus the disciples asked him when all of those things (the seven woes) would take place. What would be the signs of their coming, they asked. Jesus answered by telling them what they wanted to know.
But just like God’s patience ran out with Israel and Judah, it will run out with us, too. Jesus’ words are simply a reminder that we shouldn’t take that chance.
The plot to kill Jesus is put into action and Judas betrays Jesus: Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests and arranged to set Jesus up—revealing when and where he would be so that he could be arrested. Arrested for what? For being Jesus.
The Last Supper: The Last Supper was the name given to the Feast of the Unleavened Bread—the Passover meal. It is called the Last Supper because it is Jesus’ last meal. Prior to this day/evening, Jesus had entered Jerusalem amid shouts of praise. But in just a matter of those few days, the tide had shifted.
In a few short hours, many of the same people who had welcomed him to Jerusalem would be shouting, “Crucify him!”
It was also during the Last Supper that Jesus instituted the practice of communion, where he washed the disciples’ feet, where he told Peter he (Peter) would deny him three times before the next day, and where he revealed that one of their own (Judas) would betray him that very night.
Jesus was arrested, ‘tried’, and crucified: After finishing the meal in the upper room, Jesus took his core group (Peter, James, and John) with him to the garden to pray. Following his time of prayer Judas, along with a group of armed men sent by the high priests came to the garden and arrested Jesus.
Jesus knew the events that were unfolding and those yet to come had to be, so he simply told the men to do what they had to do. The rest of the night happened just as Jesus said it would. Peter denied knowing Jesus three times prior to the rooster’s crowing to signal the start of a new day.
Judas hung himself in shame and remorse for what he had done. Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin was a farce and nothing more than a means by which to humiliate and try to discredit the Savior. Following this mock trial, Jesus is handed over to Pilot, the governor of Rome.
Pilot finds no fault in Jesus but bending under the ‘weight’ of pressure from the Jewish leaders and people, he sentences Jesus to death on the cross. Even if Pilot had stood his ground, ultimately Jesus would have received the same sentence. He had to die.
Jesus crucified and buried and resurrected: The details of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection recorded in Matthew are agonizingly real. Little is left to the imagination.
Matthew very much wanted the Jewish community he was writing to and to know…to feel what on the surface appeared to be what they had done to the Messiah, but was in truth, what the Messiah had done for them (and us).
Jesus gives the great commission and returns to heaven: Matthew gives fewer details following Jesus’ resurrection than the other three gospels. His only detailed account of what happened after Jesus spoke with the women who had come to the tomb, was one that put the religious leaders to shame.
He revealed the fact that they tried to buy the silence of the soldiers guarding the tomb. They were willing to do anything to save face rather than accept the truth of Jesus’ holiness.
From the other gospels, however, we know that Jesus remained on earth for forty days following his resurrection. His last act on earth was to gather his disciples around him so that they could give them one last final set of instructions and so that they could witness his return to heaven.
That last ‘set of instructions’ is what is known as the Great Commission. It was not only given to them, however. It is to be the goal of everyone who accepts Jesus as Savior.
Key Verses In Matthew
Every book of the Bible provides us with words of wisdom, instruction, comfort, encouragement, admonishment, warning, promise, and hope. Let’s look at some of what the Book of Matthew has to offer.
“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.” Matthew 3:13-15
Matthew chapters 5-7, The Sermon on the Mount
“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
