Matthew Introduction

We are starting to study the book of Matthew in the New Testament, focusing on understanding Jesus as the King. Matthew, also known as Levi, was a tax collector and considered a traitor by the Jewish people. He grew up in Capernaum and his tax booth was outside the city. Matthew's name means "gift of God" in Hebrew. He was the seventh apostle chosen by Jesus. The book of Matthew aims to explain who Jesus is and why he came. Matthew's gospel emphasizes Jesus as the King. How y'all doing? Barbara sends her love. Barbara got up, we were having a cup of coffee and she said, I don't think I can go today. And I said, I understand. I said, go back and get in bed, get back on the heating pad, put your hip on the heating pad, put your knee on the heating pad, put your back on the heating pad. She's laying on three heating pads when I left and an electric blanket just trying to keep her body warm. So y'all pray for her. She's having a little bit of a difficult time, but God's good and he's in his heavens and all's right with the world. So you can't fuss about that. Good to see y'all this morning. Thanks for being here in the cold weather. Barbara and I were both commenting, probably a big, small crowd today because of the chill. But you folks come out in the chill and that's what's important, that you come out in the chill. Now we're getting ready to start studying the third Hebrew book in the New Testament. You all have studied two of them already with us. You remember we studied the book of James? James is a Hebrew book. It was written specifically to Hebrews. And guess what? The book we just finished, Hebrews, guess who it was written to? Hebrews. So you finished two of them. Now you're getting ready to start the third. Matthew is a book that was written to the Hebrews. It was written to Jewish Christians. And Matthew's trying to help these Jewish Christians come to understand who is this person who has shown up in a miraculous birth, living a life of sinlessness, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Who is this guy? Is he a king? And if he is a king, what kind of king is he? And so Matthew is going to help us come to understand because we call his gospel the gospel of the king. Because Matthew in his entire gospel is trying to help his Jewish Christian friends understand who Jesus Christ is specifically and why he is here, how he came here, what was his purpose being here, what did he do here, what did he accomplish here, what has he done, when is he coming, when did he leave, when is he coming back? And you'll have a lot of that in the book of Matthew. Now I've showed these guys the list that we're trying to do. We're going to try to do a chapter on Sunday and in Matthew that is about as impossible as me cooking a full chicken dinner. And that is a total impossibility. And sometimes when you look at these chapters in the book of Matthew, some of them will have 35, 40 verses, right Brother Jim? And so you can understand we will not be able to take them all verse by verse, but we'll break it up in pieces so that you can understand a piece of it and then you can put things around it. Now, none of the gospels ever had a name attached to them. In fact, they didn't put names on books because most of the time the books were written for churches in which these people were ministering. And since the people in the church already knew who was ministering to them and already knew who was writing this material, they didn't have to have the name put on. And so none of the gospels had a name to start with, not until the Greek New Testament came out. And when the Greek New Testament came out, history has said that the first book that is there is called Matthew. Actually, I looked at my Greek New Testament last night and it says Kata Matouane. Kata means down. This particular gospel was put down by Matthew. And so the first one says Kata Matouane. And the second one says Kata Markane, Mark. And the third one says Kata Lutan, Luke. And the fourth one says Kata Yohanan, John. And so Yohanan, John. And so we know that the gospels were written by these people historically and most of them did not have a name on them at all. Now the interesting thing about Matthew is Matthew's name in Hebrew means gift of God. Lata is the word gift in Hebrew and Yahweh is the word for God, Lord God. And so when you put Matthea together, then you get gift of God. So Matthew's name simply meant the gift of God. And he was born with two names. This is sort of interesting because in the gospels of Mark and Luke, and he is called Levi. In fact, he's called Levi a couple of times. Jesus calls him Levi. And he had two names. He was Levi Matthew or Matthew Levi. And you will see him under both of those names on different occasions. And when you see it talking about Levi, the apostle, you're talking about Matthew. Most of the time when you see his name, it will be Matthew because there were so many Levi's running around. It's kind of difficult to identify who you're talking about if you're talking about that particular person. And so Matthew was his prominent name, gift of God. And that was the one by which Jesus identified him. Now this is a test question. And if you can't answer this question, you're not going to get into heaven. So get ready. I want you to be ready because I'm going to tell you the answer. So when you get to the Golden Gate, you can say, Lord, I know which number of the apostles, the twelve was Matthew. What was his number? We know that Peter and Andrew were one and two. We know that James and John were three and four, three and four. We know that Philip from Bethsaida, the house of fishermen, was number five. We know that Bartholomew was number six. Guess who was number seven? Matthew. OK. He was the seventh of the twelve apostles chosen. And Matthew, ladies and gentlemen, was a traitor. He was a traitor to the Jewish people, traitor. He was a criminal to the Jewish people. He was hated by the Jewish people. He was hated by the Jewish people because he was constantly in the presence of publicans who were tax collectors and sinners who were not Jewish. You see, folks, in the Jewish life, the only neighbor that a Jew has is another Jew. If they live in a neighborhood of five Jews and fifty-five Gentiles, the only people in that neighborhood who is their neighbor is a Jew. Which means that, because of Matthew's profession, and we'll find out a little bit later, we knew that he was a tax collector, actually the name that they gave him was publican. And they love to say it that way. It's almost like they love to say rusha when they were trying to say blood-covered, and they'd say publican. He hangs around with publicans and sinners because most all of the publicans were Gentiles. Most of the tax collectors were Gentiles. On occasion, like Matthew, there came out of the Jewish group a tax collector, and Matthew actually being a tax collector was a traitor to the Jewish people because he could not go to the temple. And if you cannot go to the temple, you are a sinner, and you're outside the commonwealth of Israel. And Matthew, because of the relationships and the personages around whom he operated, always in a kind of a group of people who were nonetheless never invited into the temple, never invited into the faith, always kept at arm's distance, you are a traitor. In fact, to the Jewish people, Matthew was a traitor because he was a tax collector. Now, Matthew probably grew up in Capernaum. We know from the scripture this is where Jesus met him the first time. You remember Jesus when he was baptized by John in the river Jordan down near the mouth of the Sea of Salt, just where the Jordan River dumps into the Dead Sea. You remember Jesus started calling his disciples, and the first ones he called were Peter and Andrew. They were there by the Jordan River where Jesus was being baptized. And after he was baptized, he started calling his disciples, and as I told you, Peter, Simon, Peter and Andrew were the first two there by the Jordan River. And Jesus went up to Galilee, and there at Galilee were a couple of brothers by the name of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Zebedee was a great businessman who had a magnificent fishing group on the Sea of Galilee. And his two boys, James and John, did fishing for him. And they said, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. And so you see Jesus seeing these people along the Jordan River, having been baptized, Peter and Andrew. And then you see him up near the Sea of Galilee at the Sea of Capernaum, where was the actually jumping off place for the fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. And the fishermen did a great job of working, and they got a lot of fish out of that little bitty teacup kind of sea. And they were great fishermen. And James and John's father, Zebedee, had two homes. He had a home in Capernaum, he had a home in Jerusalem. Most of the time they lived in Jerusalem, but when fishing season was on, they were up in Capernaum. Now, it appears, from what we can gather, that Matthew's job was at his hometown of Capernaum. And he evidently grew up in Capernaum. And he had these two names, Levi and Matthew, both of whom were names given by Jewish faith. Now, Matthew's tax booth was just outside the city of Capernaum, going toward the Sea of Galilee. Now, when I say just outside the city, there are docks in Capernaum, if you've ever been to the Holy Land, and you have an opportunity to go see the city of Capernaum. You will see that there would have been many docks there. And just a little bit to the north, maybe eight or ten kilometers, is another little city that you know about, but you really don't know about, it's called Bethsaida. Now, around the Sea of Galilee, you had Capernaum, Bethsaida, and you had these little towns. Bethsaida was a little fishing village where Peter and Philip and Simon Peter's friend, Andrew, were fishermen. And so, Peter, Andrew, and Philip were from Bethsaida. They were from the House of Fishermen, Bethsaida. Now, you know about Bethlehem, Bethlehem is House of Bread. That's where Jesus was born. You call it Bethlehem, Bethlehem, House of Bread. So, all of these little towns had a name attached to them by something that was in their area, either fig trees, or date trees, or fish, or fishermen, all of these little towns had some relationship in their name to what was around them. You remember, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived in Bethany, the House of Figs, and a lot of fig trees. Okay, so, this is where Matthew is, he's in the city of Capernaum. Capernaum was one of the major cities on the Sea of Galilee, because it was from Capernaum that all of the great fisherman industries went out to fish, from there and from the House of Fishermen of Bethsaida. And so, all of these fishermen were there, and Matthew was there, and he had his tax table outside the city. Now, the reason it was outside the city was the city would never allow these traders to have their relational jobs inside their city walls. You never had any tax collectors inside Jerusalem, inside the city walls of Jerusalem. These tax collectors had to be outside the city. Now, Matthew was collecting taxes here because coming by the city of Capernaum, coming down from up north, coming down from Mount Hermon, was a great trade route. And there were a lot of people coming down with businesses that were coming from the northern part of Mount Hermon and up into what we know as Asia Minor, and what we know also as Turkey, and up in there, coming down to this area, going to Israel, going into Canaan, going into Israel, and doing their work there in Israel. So they were coming down as traders, and also coming at the same time across the Sahara Desert coming through Jordan, were great camel routes that would come at the northern part, and they would come around by the Sea of Galilee, and they'd come down the Jewish side and come down into Jerusalem. So it was a great trade route, and it was a great place to collect taxes. Now, Matthew was collecting taxes for Herod Antipas. Now, Herod Antipas was one of three sons of Herod the Great. The first son was given what we identify as Judah, that southern part. He failed miserably, and they deposed him. He accidentally got killed. He accidentally died. They accidentally found him dead one day. It's okay. So then the Roman Empire put what they called, in the city of Jerusalem, a governor who was a Roman military officer. And you know what his name was? Tell me what his name was. Herod? I'm sorry. I can't hear you. What? Herod? No. Who was in charge when Jesus was tried? Pilate. Pilate. He was an army officer, and he was the governor. Now, up north, the other second brother, Antipas, Herod Antipas, was the king, to say the least, of Galilee. So Antipas was in control of all of Galilee, which was up north of the Samaritan area, and then to the right and north of him, going up on the hills of Mount Hermon, was another of the brothers, whose name was Philip. There were three brothers, Antipas and Philip, and this guy that was killed. And Philip was up on the northeastern side, up at Caesarea Philippi. Are you all familiar with the name Caesarea Philippi, Caesarea Philippi? It's named for Philip, who was also a Herod king. So these were the kings. Herod Antipas was king of Galilee. Herod Antipas was an ugly, vicious, vile individual, killed a lot of people. Eventually, I won't go into it, but eventually, on a given day when Herod Antipas decided that he wanted to be God, and he had a big celebration in the seaside city of Caesarea Barantema, the Caesarea by the sea, you've got a Caesarea by the sea, you've got a Caesarea up here by Caesarea, up here by Philip, Caesarea Philippi, and you also have Caesarea Barantema, Caesarea by the sea, Herod Antipas had a great parade one day, in which he was going to identify himself as God. God didn't take too kindly to that, and in the midst of his trying to tell everybody in the book of Acts that he was God, God sent all kinds of worms up in his body, and he was eaten to death by worms. That's your friend, Herod Antipas. So you have these king brothers, Herod Antipas, Herod Philip, Caesarea Philippi. Now, Capernaum's right up there in the midst of these two guys, and it's a very, very populous area. A lot of people on trade routes are coming down there, and everyone that comes through must pay taxes to Herod Antipas. And so, Matthew had his tax table outside the city of Capernaum, near the place where they were launching the ships, because you see, Herod Antipas also taxed the fishermen. In fact, Herod Antipas taxed anything that moved. And Matthew was one of his tax collectors. Now, the interesting thing about tax collectors was, they always had to take from the people a particular percentage of tax. But, they could take any percent they desired, as long as they gave their bosses the percent they demanded. So a lot of these people were not only tax collectors, a lot of them were thieves. Actually, they were criminals. And actually, they could never go into the city of Jerusalem to the temple, because they were always with publicans, tax collectors, and they were always with sinners, and nobody wanted to have anything to do with them. Now, the interesting thing about Matthew is, he had a skill that was so vitally necessary for the kingdom of God, that Jesus had, eventually, needed him as the person to write the first gospel. Because Matthew was a tax collector, he had to keep, accurately, the taxes that he collected. Even though he may have taken 20% when it was only supposed to be 7, he had to report 7, but he didn't have to tell them about the other 13. You see, fraud is not only in Minnesota. Fraud is also in Capernaum. And every one of these tax collectors were thieves. They were always collecting more taxes than they were required to collect, because that's how they made their living. Now, Matthew, because of his scribal ability, keeping complete records of all of these tax collections, made him a perfect candidate with a great writing acumen to write a book. Vis-a-vis the book of Matthew. Now, Jesus is in the city of Capernaum. He's come up from the Dead Sea. He's been calling these disciples as he comes up. He's already called six of them. He just got Andrew, James, and John. He already has Peter and Andrew. He's got Philip from up in Bethsaida. Philip's from the house of fishermen. He was a fisherman. In fact, do you remember when Jesus was on the hillsides up in Galilee, and he was getting ready to feed the 5,000? If you read that particular story in the Gospels, he calls Philip. He says, hey, Philip, come here. I need to talk with you. So the scripture says that Philip comes up to him, and he says, Philip, where is the nearest Walmart? Because Philip was from there. They were near Bethsaida, up on the hills of northern Galilee, of the Sea of Galilee. And he asked Philip a very simple question. He said, Philip, where can we go to purchase food? Where is the nearest Walmart? To which Philip said, Lord, if there were such a place as that around here, we couldn't purchase anything because we don't have any money. And Jesus said, OK, what are we going to do? About that time, the finder, Andrew. Andrew is always the finder. Andrew finders his brother, Peter, and bringeth him to Jesus. Remember? Andrew finds a little boy. The little kid has a lunch. You know the story. I don't tell you stories. It's a cute story. He's got a little lunch. Some fishes and some bread. A couple of little sardines. Just a couple of little old fishes. Have dried fish and a couple of little knots of bread. And Andrew says, Lord, I have found a little boy who has a lunch. But what is that? How many fish? How many loaves of bread? Five and two. OK. He says, what is this among this? And he shows him all these people who are there. What is this little bitty lunch among all this? And Jesus says, OK, Andrew, have everybody sit down in fifties. And Jesus takes the lunch. And he blesses it. And all of a sudden, he feeds all probably 25,000, 30,000 people. And at the end of it all, they take up 12 baskets full. Baskets full? What kind of basket? If you read the Gospels, Jesus is getting ready to take his disciples on a trip over into Decapolis. A Greek area. And they are not going to be able to buy food over there. So Jesus says, you all take up the scraps that are left. And all of the disciples fill their little baskets, all 12 of them, with fish and bread. To make the trip to Decapolis. The reason we know it was their little basket is because it has a name. Baskets in Greek have two different names. One of the names is kafanous. That means a fishing creel. You know what a fishing creel is? You know that basket that they wear when they fly fish? Or when they fish in the water? And they put the fish in the basket? That's called a creel. These things look like a creel. They wore them on their side and they carried their lunch in it. A little lunch bucket. And Jesus said, be sure you fill up these 12. Because we are getting ready to take a trip and you have to have something to eat. We are going over to Decapolis. Okay, you got the picture? Alright, now that's where Jesus is. That's where Matthew is. He comes up to Matthew. And he says to Matthew. Matthew, follow me. How simple can that be? Follow me. To which Jesus, looking at Matthew, watches Matthew push the table back, stand up, and says, Lord, I'll follow you. And tonight, we're going to have a party in my house. In Capernaum. And tonight, Lord, I'm going to introduce you to all my publicans and all my sinner friends. At my house. And if you go and read the book of Luke, you'll see the story where Jesus calls Matthew. And the end of that calling in the book of Luke, they have a big party in Capernaum. And Matthew has all of his publicans and sinners, according to the book of Luke, there. And Jesus is winning them to him by the tens. Now, the Pharisees are watching from the outside. They're not about to go in that house. Wow, that's full of publicans and sinners. That's full of tax collectors and ugly mugglies. Don't go in there. If you go in there, you can't go in the temple. You've got to go cleanse yourself to go in the temple. If you get around those publicans and sinners, you're going to get dirty. And you have to cleanse yourself to go in the temple. Don't go in there. You'll just get dirty. Just stand out here and criticize. If you stand out here and criticize, you won't get dirty. Really? And so they're out there. And Matthew gives Jesus this big party. And the Pharisees criticize him. He said, look at him. He's eating. Oh, that's bad. He is eating with publicans and sinners. To which Jesus looks at these Pharisees standing outside Matthew's house, and he says to them, Gentlemen, I have not come to call the righteous to repentance. If you guys are righteous, you don't need repentance. Go away. But God has sent me here to call sinners to repentance. And he just kept eating. And that's Matthew. And he was called. Now, it's kind of interesting about Matthew. His book is called The Gospel of the King. In fact, when we get to page four, I have a short outline there. And you'll notice that the first outline identity is the kingdom. I'm going to show you the revelation of the king. Matthew is going to prove that Jesus is Messiah. Matthew's gospel is going to prove that Jesus is the Messiah who wants to come. Matthew's gospel is going to show you that everything Jesus did was his kingliness. His kingship. Saw his kingdom being demonstrated. We now have a new king. And his name is Jesus. He's the king of all creation. And so Matthew's book is going to be The Gospel of the King. Now, it's kind of interesting. Mark's book. Here's what's interesting about Mark's book. Mark goes from the birth to the baptism in 16 verses. May I say that again? In the book of Mark, Mark tells the story of Jesus from the birth to the baptism in 16 verses. It takes Luke four chapters. It takes Matthew six chapters. Mark does it in 14 verses. So a lot of people call Mark's gospel the Reader's Digest of the life of Christ. And it is. It's very short. To the point. Only has 16 chapters. Over with quickly. Now, the third gospel is Luke's gospel. Now, Mark's gospel was primarily written for Roman readers. Luke's gospel was primarily written for Greek readers. And Luke, the physician, who probably was Greek, is the one who's writing to his Greek brothers. And he wants them to know about this Messiah who has come into the world. Who is not only the Messiah of the Jews, but as Matthew will show us toward the end of this lesson today, he's also the Messiah of the Gentiles. And so what we're getting ready to see here is Luke's gospel is the gospel of the perfect Son of Man. Perfect Son of Man. Perfect meaning what? Complete. Jesus was the complete man. Never one before. Never one again. Last Adam from above. The eternal King of all creation, Jesus Christ. And so Luke is going to identify him to the Greek people as the perfect, complete Son of God. John's gospel, whereas, was sent primarily to everybody. It was a universal gospel. And John's gospel went everywhere. And in his gospel, he was going to prove that Jesus was THE Son of God. Not a perfect, complete Son of God, but this is THE. With the emphasis on the adjective THE. THE Son of God. There was none other. And if you want to see about that, go to the 15th chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians. And in 15 of 1 Corinthians, you will see, whereas the first Adam was born of sinfulness, the second Adam from above was born of righteousness. And you get the first Adam and the second Adam, the first man and the second man, and the first Adam and the last Adam. Because you see, after Jesus, there will be no more. Adam was the first. Jesus was the last. And you remember the great Christmas carol that says, Second Adam from above, recreate us in thy love. Hark, the herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn King. Second Adam from above. Okay, so that's what Matthew's talking about. And Matthew's going to help you understand that Jesus Christ is the second Adam. And the first Adam, having come here, to put all of us into what? Say the word S-I-N. Sin. Adam's generation put all of us into sin. It was not a choice. You didn't have a choice of where you were born or the generation into which you were born. You were born into the human race. You were born into the death of Adam. You were born in the first Adam, who was always sinful. And because we were always sinful, we live and abide in sin. So the first Adam's genealogy is sin. And if you notice, in the first Adam's genealogy, a lot of stuff is talked about when it says, And they died. And they died. And they died. Until you get to the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew, and it says, And the birth, and the new life, and the life within the blood. And so you begin to see the difference between the Adamic sinfulness and the Christological righteousness. Now, there's a word in the book of Matthew that you're going to have to keep your eyes open for, because it appears about 15 plus times. The word is fulfilled. Fulfilled. Now, the accompanying word to that one in the Old Testament is promise. The Old Testament was full of promises. We go and we read in Isaiah 714, A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us. We read it in Isaiah, For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of the increase of his government and peace there is no end. Upon the throne of David shall he order it, and establish it from henceforth forever. The zeal of God performs it. Do you know what the word zeal means? Hot passion. Ladies and gentlemen, my little black-haired friend is not here today, because she's not feeling well. But on one day, when I saw her singing in the choir in 1954, Jimmy, at First Baptist Church Terrell, she had beautiful raven black hair. She was the cutest little thing I'd ever seen in my entire life. And I fell in love with her the first time I saw her. And I will not tell you what happened, because it's a terrible story. She still reminds me of it. Sometime when you have time, I'll tell you. But I want you to know something. That little gal there, she was so beautiful. And she was so cute. And she had such snappy eyes, and quick wit. The zeal came out of me. And Sandy, I had hot passion for her. Okay? That's what the word zeal means. And I still have zeal for Barbara, now Terry, okay? And I had zeal for her this morning. I know she was hurting. She would not stay home if she wasn't hurting. Y'all pray for her, would you please? Okay. So now, Matthew is trying to get his lesson to the Jewish people. So what you're going to see is the word fulfilled. In the Old Testament, the word was promise. This is what promise. Behold, a virgin shall conceive. Behold, they will call his name Jesus, for he shall save their people from their sins. All of these Old Testament promises. And in the New Testament, beginning with Matthew, the word that you're going to see 15 times plus or more is the word fulfilled. And the promise of God for the imminent appearance of the Messiah in the world was the fulfillment of the promise from the Old Testament. Behold, a virgin shall conceive. The promise is now fulfilled. The promise is fulfilled. The promise is fulfilled. You'll see that all through the book of Matthew. You'll see that Jesus is fulfilling the promise. Now, it's kind of interesting. Although this book, Matthew, is primarily written for Jews, with about 125 quotations used in Matthew about the promise. Although it's primarily written for Jews, it also has a great Gentile attachment. If you'll notice, it is in the book of Matthew, not Luke, not Mark, not John. It is in the book of Matthew that some Gentile magi show up. Did you ever figure that one out? They didn't come to the manger. They weren't there at the birth. They came when Jesus was about 18, 20 months old. And it says, and when they came to the house. Now, look at your scripture. It says, and when they came to the house, when these Gentile magi, these great wisdom people from the East. You know, I never have figured out where the East is. I've been trying to figure it out, you know. But here they come, the Gentile. That's one thing that Matthew emphasizes. Nobody else told us about the Gentile magi. Why would the Gentile magi show up? Well, it's because the Gentile magi had been reading the Old Testament. The Gentile magi had been reading the Jewish book. And the Gentile magi saw the star. It was in the book. And they saw the star and they followed the star. Because God had impressed upon them that this star will take you to my Messiah King, whose name will be called Jesus. He talks about the Gentiles. Not only that, not only does he talk about Gentiles there, but everybody also stands in favor of the Gentiles who know that their membership, like the Jews, can be in heaven. So, in the book of Matthew, you're going to see where he talks about a lot of Gentile people. He talks about the raising of a Gentile man's son. He died in Capernaum. Jesus was over on the other side of the mountains. He died. His son died. And he got on a trip to go see Jesus. When he came to where Jesus was, Jesus said, By the way, thank you for having faith in me. When you left yesterday to come see me, your son was healed. And the man spent all day, part of the night, all of another day getting back to Capernaum from over here where they had a wedding at Cana. Jesus was in Cana. Across the mountains from Capernaum. Day and a half trip. The man went back to Jerusalem. He said, When did my son begin to show evidence of healing? They said, Master, about one o'clock yesterday. He was a Gentile. So you see, the book of Matthew is going to have a great deal to do with Gentiles. Also, a lot of people in Christian history believe that this book of Matthew, as all the books were sent to all the churches, this book of Matthew was read in Antioch of Syria. Now, you remember, there are seven Antiochs. Seven of them. We know primarily of two of them pretty good. We know about Antioch of Syria and Antioch of Pisidia. Antioch of Syria is up on the northern side, north of what we now know as, what is that little country just north of Israel and black? Yeah. It's the city from which Paul and Barnabas had their first missionary trip. Antioch of Syria. It appears that the book got to Antioch of Syria, and a young man read it whose name was Ignatius. If you know anything about church history, Ignatius became the bishop of Antioch of Syria. And in his life story he tells that the reason that he came to that position was because of the book of Matthew. So the book of Matthew was not only for Gentiles, it was also primarily for Jews and primarily for redemption. Now, Matthew says in this book that Jesus had two major qualities. He was a doer and a teacher. Being the doer and the teacher, he had both qualities going on all the time. Matthew describes in his book twenty specific miracles. So as we study the book of Matthew and as Brother John teaches, Brother Jimmy teaches, and you come to these places twenty times in the book of Matthew, you're going to see Matthew highlighting miracles that Jesus is doing. The miracle of the feeding of five thousand. The miracle of the wine in Antioch. The miracles that he did. The healing of the nobleman's son from Capernaum. Okay? So you're going to see all these twenty specific miracles are going to be demonstrated in the book of Matthew. Not only that, you're going to see six major messages from Jesus. One of which you know really well. The Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, 6, and 7. It's one of the greatest sermons that Jesus preached. And we call the beginning of that sermonic deliverance the Beatitudes. And the Beatitudes are the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Not only does he do the Sermon on the Mount, but he also does the Sermon on the Mount of Olives. And there are several other things that he does in effect. In fact, almost 60% of the gospel focuses on Jesus' teaching. That's why it's so important to the Jews. Matthew wanted to be sure that the Jewish people understood who Matthew is writing about and what he is going to become. And so Matthew determined that Jesus Christ to his Christian Hebrew brothers would be completely understood as the king who has come into the world to redeem the world. And so you're going to see the king and his kingdom. In fact, the entire book of Matthew is about the king. When you get to the end and you come to the crucifixion, you're going to see a little sign over his head that says I-N-R-I. It says what? I-N-R-I. No, it says J-N-J-I. Jesus, regent, king of the Jews. Jesus, king, regent. I-N-R-I. R-I, regent. Do you know what the beef guys in England wear on their breast plates? You know those guys that work in the museum? Who's the king of England? King who? Who's the king? King George, right? Is King George the king of England? Who's the king? Charles. King Charles. If you notice on the breast plate of these guys who work in many of the places in the kingdom of England, they will have R-C. When Elizabeth was queen, it was R-E. Regent Elizabeth. R-C. Regent Charles. What does it mean? King. Okay. On that little sign there was I-N-R-I. Jesus, Nazareth, regent, Jews. See, that's the last thing Matthew's going to tell you about him. Almost. Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews. What is Matthew trying to prove to his people? Jesus is the what? The king. And he's going to do it five different ways. Number one, in chapters one through ten, of which John and Jim and I will have a big part, he is going to prove that Jesus was revealed to us. Beginning with the birth in Bethlehem. Beginning with his circumcision. He's going to prove to us that Jesus was revealed to the world as king of the Jews. That's going to be the first part, chapters one through ten. The second part, you're going to see a rebellion of the Hebrew people vis-a-vis scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees and Essenes and high priests and priests and uglies. You're going to see them all in rebellion against the king. And you're going to have four chapters where you're going to see a rebellion against the king. And they're going to try to kill him. They want to kill him. They want to get rid of Jesus. They don't like him. He's in their way. He's taking too much of their money away from them. Oh, by the way, that's what's happening in Minnesota. They're taking too much of our money away. And it needs to stop. And Jesus was beginning to work on that part of their life also. Do you know that at the time of Jesus, all of the vestments of the high priest were made and given to the high priest from Rome? All of the vestments of the high priest were made in Rome. And all the high priest vestments carried the Roman imprimatur, which meant that faith and politics kind of mixed up a little bit. So the rebellion by these people who were mixed up a little bit, scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, high priests, priests, the lawyers, the lawyers of the word, all of them were against Jesus. A great rebellion goes on in Matthew. You wait until you get to chapter 11 through 13. Watch the rebellion. And then the next thing is, Jesus is going to back off from the rebellion. And that's when he's going to be the retirement of the king. And that's going to be chapter 14 through 20. Now, this is the point where Jesus says to the Sadducees, You will see me no more. Do you remember that statement that he made to them? They had been persecuting him. They had been running after him. They had been trying to get him. They had been trying to kill him. They were trying to do everything they could to stop his ministry. They were rebelling against him. And Jesus just got fed up with it. And he said, Okay, from this point on, my teaching is only to my church. It's only to my people. It's only to those who have believed in me. From this point on, you will see me no more. Now, watch. When you go through chapter 14 through 20, you're going to see Jesus talking to people, but not a one of them is going to be a Pharisee. Not a one of them is going to be a high priest. Not a one of them in these seven chapters are going to be anything but the people of the Lord Jesus Christ. Watch it when you get to that chapter. And then, number four, you're going to see the rejection of the king. And that's when they decide they've got to kill him. They've decided this has gone too far. We've just got to get rid of him. And so you're going to see the rejection of the king. And, of course, his death, chapter 21 through 27. And the last thing you're going to see is the resurrection of the king. And in the resurrection of the king, not only are you going to see him do this, but you're also going to hear the Great Commission, Matthew 28, 19 through 20. And you shall be my disciples after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. You shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Galilee and unto the uttermost parts of the world. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations. Jews? What did Matthew just say? Matthew 28, 19 and 20? Go ye, therefore, and teach who? All nations. Gentile Jews. And when you get through teaching them, baptize them. And when you get through baptizing them, teach them all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And, lo, I am with you unto the end of the end of the end. We call it the Great Commission. By the way, in that Great Commission, there's only one imperative. There are four participles. Three participles, one imperative. Going, baptizing, and teaching. All three of those are participles. Go ye into all the world and make disciples. There's your imperative. Jesus said, going into all the world, make disciples. Baptizing, teaching, and, lo, I am with you always unto the end of the end of the end. Matthew 28, 19 and 20. One imperative. Our major task. Make disciples. That's Matthew. Finally, Matthew introduced a lot of new things. And as you read through my material, you'll see the new things. But one thing he did that none of the other gospel writers did, he introduced a new group. Are you aware of the fact that Matthew is the only of the gospel writers who used the word church in his gospel? Nobody else used the word church. Mark, Luke, John. Oh, they used ecclesia, congregation, grouping. But Matthew actually uses the word church in Matthew 16, 18, and 18, 17. And it is translated church. Or in the Greek it would be the called out assembly. That's us. We are the called out assembly. We are the, say it, church. Remember, Matthew is the only of the four gospel writers who used the word church. And he called us the called out assembly. And he meant a local called out assembly. Of both Jews and Gentiles. Now, here's the interesting thing. This word church has an entirely new meaning than the word Hebrew congregation. Because this word church does not indicate what Hebrew congregation means. Hebrew assembly means only Hebrews. Church means Hebrews and Gentiles. And the church is made up of both Jews and Gentiles. Aren't you glad? So we come to the end. And the end is very simply this. Jesus dedicated, indicated blessings which Israel refused would be shared with the Gentiles. Matthew told us that, folks. A Jew told us that. None of the other gospel writers told us that the gospel would be shared with Gentiles. Aren't you glad? Can't you smile and be happy that the gospel was shared with Gentiles? He indicated blessings of Israel that Israel refused. They refused this blessing. It's going to be given to the Gentiles. Your blessing of redemption is going to the Gentiles. And unto all the nations and into all nations. Now I'll close. I'm going to read this to you. Matthew, the hated tax collector, a publican, a sinner, the cheat at a tax table, met Jesus who made friends of publicans and sinners of whom Matthew was one. And one forever after. Jesus said, Matthew, follow me. Pushed his livelihood and his cheating life away. And followed Jesus. Number seven. Andrew, Peter, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew. You've got to know that to get into heaven. Okay? Andrew, Peter, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew. Okay? Number eight. Matthew. Number seven. Number seven. Number seven. Number eight. Number eight. Another guy. Okay. I wish I had time to take your questions. That's the introduction to Matthew. I wish I had time to take your questions because I'd love to answer some of them. It's 5 till 11 and I can tell your bellies are growling at me. So I know you need to go. I think. No, I know. I know you're going to enjoy the 28 chapters of Matthew. Because in these 28 chapters, you're going to learn two major important things. How much the Jewish people hated Jesus. And how much the Gentile faith received Him. You're going to learn those two very important things. And another thing you're going to learn as you go through this is how very vicious the opposition was. They would have loved to have killed Him. Eventually did. For three days. And it was over. So, let me encourage you to do this. Because these chapters are so long, some of them, when Brother Jimmy or Brother John or I are doing one of the chapters, please read it ahead of time. Let that be your Bible study, part of your Bible study for the week. Because we're going to try to cover the whole chapter. Now, we're going to do it in parts and bits and pieces. So we'll cover the whole chapter. But you need to sit down and read it. Because you need to see what they're talking about. And you need to come to understand what's happening in the life of Jesus and the life of these apostles and the life of Matthew. And remember, Matthew is a gift of God. And he was. And ever shall be. Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for this guy. I wish I could have met him. One day shall. One day sit down with him and talk with him about when he saw Jesus come into that tax table. And he knew in his heart that his taxing opportunity was gone. And that he would be born into the kingdom of God by new birth. By simply doing one very important thing. By saying, Lord Jesus, I'm a publican and I'm a sinner. And I cannot get into heaven. And Lord Jesus, I need you to save me. And at that tax table, Jesus brought Matthew. New birth. New birth, new testament, new congregation, new church. Brought newness to Matthew for his eternal life. And for that, we give you great praise because we receive the same thing. And one day we shall sit with Matthew and enjoy the fellowship of the kingdom. Thank you, Lord, for all of your love toward us. Bless those who are ill. Bless those who need our prayers. Bless Charlie Sullivan as he gets over this cancer and able to eat again. Bless Debbie as she ministers to him. Bless, Father, all of those who are ill. Bless those we pray for every day. Bless everybody we think about. Father, help us to remember to pray for your kingdom. And for that, we give you great praise in his holy name. Amen. Next Sunday we do chapter one.