Understanding the Gospel of Matthew and why it matters – Part 1

An introduction to Matthew

ADJUSTMENT

Have you ever been promised something wonderful and then made to wait? Have you felt the eager anticipation of a child on Christmas Eve, or the desperate longing of a wife awaiting a letter from a husband at war? Many Christians await Jesus’ return in this way, occasionally glancing up at the sky and wondering if maybe, just maybe, today might be the day.

If you can relate to that feeling, then you can begin to understand what the Jewish people were experiencing in the first century AD. They had been promised a Messiah who would come and be their King. Four hundred years had passed since the last time they received a word from God. There were no longer any prophets proclaiming “Thus saith the Lord…” In a sense, this was the Dark Ages of Israel.

Some felt that the wait was too long, giving up the promise and assuming that God had forgotten his people. But the faithful trusted God’s promise and waited expectantly for the coming of the Messiah. Although many generations came and went during this waiting period, parents and grandparents made sure that the children were well educated in the stories of the early saints and the promises that God had made to their ancestors. With the passage of time and Israel’s captivity under Roman rule, the expected Messiah began to be portrayed more and more as a military hero who would lead the Israelites to political freedom. These Jews did not realize that their greatest bondage was their sin, not the Romans. The emperor had heavily taxed them, but their sin had condemned them to spiritual death. The Messiah they wanted was a warrior, but the Messiah they needed was a Savior.

Suddenly, after four hundred years of silence, God again began His special work in Israel. First an angel appeared to aged Zechariah, then John the Baptist emerged as the forerunner of Christ, and then Jesus himself, “like a root out of dry ground,” appeared in a small stable outside an inn in Bethlehem. The Gospel of Matthew is the faithful account of the history of this man. It is a wake-up call to Jewish people past and present that declares “The wait is over! Your Messiah has arrived!”
We could speculate about many reasons why God waited until the first century to send His Son to earth. I am convinced that God was holding off until the right time when Jesus’ followers could better carry his message beyond the borders of Israel to the Gentiles. Here are some reasons why the first century was ideal:

* The Hellenistic Greek language had become a common language throughout most of the Roman Empire, giving different cultures the ability to communicate with each other. This allowed the message of Christ to be shared more easily and effectively with non-Jews than would have been possible in previous centuries.

* With the rise of the Roman Empire came the beginning of urbanization. Cities began to appear in many different regions of the empire, allowing early missionaries to impact larger numbers of people in a shorter period of time.

* The Roman road system was revolutionary for its time, making travel faster and safer than ever.

* Roman conquests had caused many pagan nations to lose faith in their gods. This was compounded by the rise of the Greek philosophers, who influenced many to think critically about life and reject mythological deities. This created a “spiritual vacuum” ready to be filled by the message of Christ.

While the first century was ideal for the message of Christ to reach the Gentiles, it was also ideal for the Jews. At the time of Jesus’ birth, a movement known as Pharisaic Judaism had risen to prominence in Israel. These religious conservatives imposed incredibly strict laws on the Jewish people, proclaiming that God’s favor could only be earned by those who conformed to the strict rules established by the Pharisees. The standards of justice were unattainable, causing many to despair of any hope of pleasing God. Thus, the stage was set for a Messiah who could offer his own righteousness as a substitute for theirs.

AUTHOR

Of the four gospels, Matthew’s authorship is by far the most disputed. Those who deny its authorship rightly argue that the gospel nowhere mentions Matthew as its author, and only refers to Matthew in the third person. They claim that the original author was forgotten and that Mateo’s name was attached to the title so that the work would receive credibility.

This argument is unlikely, however, because the early church fathers unanimously attributed the work to Matthew. It is doubtful that these men would have forgotten the original author of the most quoted gospel of the early centuries. In fact, as one commentator points out, the author would probably have been the last thing the early parents would have forgotten. Early tradition credits Matthew as the author, and until more convincing evidence to the contrary appears, I think it wiser to accept his testimony. However, even if Matthew was not the author, this gospel has been accepted as part of God’s inspired canon and is completely true and reliable.

Mateo, whom some also called Levi, was part of the most hated group of men of the first century: he was a tax collector. With the authority of the Roman government behind them, these men were responsible for collecting the income and land taxes levied on their fellow Jews. Every penny they were able to collect above the required amount, they were free to keep for themselves. Therefore, tax collectors tended to be cruel and greedy. Furthermore, they were considered traitors by their own people, since they had chosen to work for the Roman government that held power over Israel.

Matthew was probably not a very religious man; tax collectors tended to be shut out of local synagogues and even the Temple. His friends were probably other tax collectors and disreputable sinners. He records the story of his call in one verse:

“As Jesus was passing by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting in the tax office, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.” (9:9)

It is hard to know what made Matthew immediately leave his life’s work and follow Christ. It is almost certain that he had already heard of Jesus and his miracles, and he may have even heard him preach before. Whatever the reason, Matthew became one of Jesus’ most devoted followers.

Matthew’s life was one of unrestricted dedication to Christ. This man of greed became a man of sacrificial love. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs records Matthew’s death this way:

“[Matthew], whose trade was toll, was born in Nazareth. He wrote the gospel of it in Hebrew, which was later translated into Greek by James the Less. The scene of his labors was Parthia and Ethiopia, in which latter country he suffered martyrdom, being killed with a halberd in the city of Nadaba, in AD 60.

It’s no wonder, then, that the Gospel of Matthew contains some of Jesus’ sharpest statements about the cost of discipleship. Matthew knew firsthand what it was like to work and suffer for the cause of Christ.

MAIN TOPICS

It is by divine design that Matthew is the first of the Gospels and the first book of the New Testament. It better connects the teaching, promises, and prophecies of the Old Testament with their fulfillment in the New. Matthew references the Old Testament as many as sixty times and quotes it close to forty times, often using phrases such as “all this happened so that what the Lord had spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled…” Unlike Mark, the Matthew’s gospel is less concerned with chronology and more thematic in nature. It groups many of Jesus’ miracles into sections and provides several teaching blocks, including the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7) and the Olivet Discourse (chapters 24-25).

The central message of the Gospel of Matthew is that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised King, the long-awaited Messiah. In a sense, the Gospel of Matthew is an apologetic work that seeks to defend the claims of Jesus by providing a biblical foundation. It should be noted that Matthew was a Jew who wrote primarily to the Jews of his day. This is not to say that this gospel has no benefit for 21st century Christians; in fact, for those who long to be disciples of Jesus, it is a goldmine of instruction. However, it should be noted that although God’s providence saw fit that this gospel should be written for us, it was not written for us. To properly understand Matthew, we must remember the audience he was directly addressing.

3 revolutionary truths

Matthew’s gospel presents three truths that would have been absolutely revolutionary to the original readers: First, Matthew declares that the kingdom of God is not a physical kingdom, but a spiritual one. The kingdom of Jesus is not a nation, but the “kingdom of heaven”, a phrase that appears thirty-two times in the Gospel of Matthew. Instead of a military hero come to save the Jews from the Romans, the Messiah is a lower-class carpenter from Nazareth who lives for thirty-three years and is brutally murdered. His kingship is not over the nation of Israel, but over all who trust in Him for the forgiveness of their sins.

Second, Matthew reveals that this Jesus is more than the Messiah; He is the very Son of God! Jesus is the image of God Himself in human flesh. This was not something expected by the Jewish people and was met with great opposition. Yet Matthew unashamedly presents this doctrine, even in passages in his gospel such as Peter’s Confession to Jesus: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Third, the Gospel of Matthew becomes even more controversial by teaching that Jews do not automatically inherit the kingdom of heaven based on their ethnicity, but rather through repentance and faith in Christ. In fact, one of the most shocking truths of Matthew is that some Gentiles will enter the kingdom while many Jews will be expelled. This was a very hard pill for the Jewish people to swallow, having been taught from infancy that they alone were God’s chosen people, and that He was their God.

The Gospel of Matthew includes some of the most endearing, difficult and glorious verses in the Bible. It has long been seen as the first place for disciples to begin learning how to follow their Lord. Do you long to know more perfectly the character of Jesus? Do you long to learn more about the values ​​he loved and the sins he despised? Are you willing to face the challenge of dying to your own needs and seeking Christ as King? Then get ready. Prepare your heart. Ask the Spirit to prepare you.

Let’s go!