Matthew

Behold, the King Has Come

The Old Testament ended with a promise and a long silence. Matthew breaks the silence with a family tree: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (1:1). To a modern reader, a list of names is the slowest possible way to start a book. To a first-century Jew, it was the loudest. Son of David meant King. Son of Abraham meant the promised blessing to all nations. In one sentence, Matthew tells his readers that everything they had been waiting for has arrived.

Matthew is the bridge between the testaments. He quotes and echoes the Old Testament more than any other Gospel, and again and again he stops the story to say, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet.” His Gospel is the story of a King: born under a death sentence from a jealous ruler, announced by a forerunner, teaching His kingdom’s laws from a mountain, rejected by His own, crowned with thorns, and raised with all authority in heaven and earth.

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Authorship & Setting

The Gospel does not name its author, but the early church was unanimous that it came from Matthew, also called Levi, the tax collector Jesus called from his booth in Capernaum (9:9; Mark 2:14). Around AD 125, Papias of Hierapolis wrote that Matthew compiled the sayings of Jesus in the Hebrew language, a statement preserved by the church historian Eusebius. Every early manuscript heading and church father who mentions the book assigns it to Matthew.

It fits him. A tax collector kept records and handled numbers, and this Gospel is carefully organized. The genealogy is arranged in three sets of fourteen generations (1:17). Jesus’ teaching is gathered into five great discourses, each ending with a phrase like “when Jesus had ended these sayings” (7:28; 11:1; 13:53; 19:1; 26:1). Only Matthew calls himself “Matthew the publican” in the list of the twelve (10:3). The others leave his past job out. He kept it in.

The date is debated. Many conservative scholars place it in the 50s or 60s AD, before the Romans destroyed the temple in AD 70, since Jesus’ prophecy of that destruction is recorded without any note that it had already happened. Others place it later. Matthew wrote mainly for Jewish believers. He assumes his readers know the law and the customs, and he prefers the phrase “kingdom of heaven,” using it more than thirty times, a reverent Jewish way of speaking about the kingdom of God.

Key Figures

• Jesus — the Son of David, the Son of God, Emmanuel. He is the King whose kingdom is the subject of the whole book.
• Joseph — a just man who obeyed four dreams from God without a recorded word, and protected the child from Herod (1:18–2:23).
• The wise men — Gentiles from the east who came asking, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” (2:2), while Jerusalem’s own scholars stayed home.
• John the Baptist — Malachi’s promised messenger, preaching repentance in the wilderness and preparing the way of the Lord (3:1–17).
• Peter — the bold, impulsive fisherman who walked on water and sank, confessed Jesus as the Christ, and denied Him three times.
• Matthew — a despised tax collector who left his table of money the moment Jesus said, “Follow me” (9:9).
• Caiaphas and Pilate — the high priest and the Roman governor, the religious and political powers that condemned the King.
• The women at the tomb — Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary,” the first to hear “He is not here: for he is risen, as he said” (28:6).

Greek Word Study

βασιλεία · basileia

“Kingdom,” or more exactly “reign.” It is not first a territory but the active rule of a king. When Jesus says “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (4:17), He means God’s reign has stepped into the world in His own person. Seek first the basileia (6:33) means to seek His rule over your life before anything else.

πληρόω · plēroō

“To fulfill,” to fill up, to bring to full measure. Matthew uses it again and again for Scripture being fulfilled. Jesus uses it of Himself: “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (5:17). The law and the prophets were not thrown out. They were filled full.

μακάριος · makarios

“Blessed.” It opens each of the Beatitudes (5:3–11). This is not a passing mood but a settled state of being favored by God. Jesus pronounces it over the poor in spirit, the mourners, and the persecuted, people the world would never call fortunate.

μαθητεύω · mathēteuō

“To make disciples.” It is the main command of the Great Commission (28:19), translated “teach” in the KJV. The going, baptizing, and teaching all serve this one verb. A disciple is a learner who follows, and Jesus sends His church to make more of them.

Eight-Movement Narrative Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

The Son of David, Son of Abraham (1–2)

The genealogy runs from Abraham to Joseph, and it includes four women, all with complicated stories: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and “her that had been the wife of Urias” (1:3–6). Grace is in the King’s family tree from the start. An angel tells Joseph the child is conceived of the Holy Ghost: “thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (1:21). He is Emmanuel, “God with us”(1:23). Wise men worship Him, Herod tries to kill Him, and the family flees into Egypt until Herod is dead.

MOVEMENT TWO

The Herald and the Wilderness (3–4)

John preaches in the wilderness of Judaea, and Jesus comes to be baptized. The heavens open, the Spirit descends like a dove, and the Father says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (3:17). Then the Spirit leads Him into the wilderness for forty days. He answers every temptation with Scripture, all three from Deuteronomy: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (4:4). He begins to preach “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (4:17), and calls fishermen to become fishers of men.

MOVEMENT THREE

The Sermon on the Mount (5–7)

The King sits down on a mountain and teaches the laws of His kingdom. The Beatitudes turn the world’s values upside down. His people are salt and light. Six times He says, “Ye have heard that it was said… But I say unto you,” taking the law down to the heart: anger, lust, oaths, retaliation, love for enemies. He teaches His disciples to pray, and tells them not to worry but to “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (6:33). He closes with two builders, one on rock and one on sand. The crowds are astonished, “For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (7:29).

MOVEMENT FOUR

Authority Over All (8–10)

Teaching with authority is followed by acting with it. Jesus touches a leper: “I will; be thou clean” (8:3). He heals a Roman centurion’s servant with a word, calms a storm, and drives demons out of two men in the Gadarenes. The disciples ask, “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” (8:27). He forgives sins, raises a ruler’s daughter, and calls Matthew from the tax table, then eats with publicans and sinners: “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice” (9:13). Moved with compassion for crowds “as sheep having no shepherd” (9:36), He sends out the twelve.

MOVEMENT FIVE

Rest for the Weary, Parables for the Hearers (11–13)

As opposition grows, Jesus gives one of the tenderest invitations in Scripture: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (11:28). The Pharisees accuse Him of breaking the sabbath and of casting out devils by Beelzebub. He tells them “a greater than Jonas is here” and “a greater than Solomon is here” (12:41–42). Then He begins to teach in parables: the sower, the wheat and tares, the mustard seed, the leaven, the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price, and the net. The kingdom starts small and hidden, and it is worth everything.

MOVEMENT SIX

Whom Say Ye That I Am? (14–18)

Jesus feeds five thousand, walks on the sea, and pulls a sinking Peter out of the waves. A Canaanite mother’s faith wins healing for her daughter, even if she gets only “the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table” (15:27). At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks, “But whom say ye that I am?” and Peter answers, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:15–16). Jesus promises to build His church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. From then on He tells them plainly that He must suffer, die, and rise. On a high mountain He is transfigured. He teaches them to forgive “seventy times seven” (18:22).

MOVEMENT SEVEN

The King Comes to Jerusalem (19–25)

Jesus enters Jerusalem exactly as Zechariah foretold: “Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass” (21:5). He cleanses the temple, curses the barren fig tree, and answers every trap the leaders set. He pronounces seven woes on the scribes and Pharisees, then weeps over the city: “how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (23:37). On the Mount of Olives He tells of the temple’s fall and His own return, and gives three parables of readiness: the ten virgins, the talents, and the sheep and goats. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me”(25:40).

MOVEMENT EIGHT

The Cross, the Tomb, and All Authority (26–28)

A woman anoints Him for burial. Judas sells Him for thirty pieces of silver. At the Passover, Jesus gives the cup of the new testament in His blood. In Gethsemane He prays, “nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (26:39). He is arrested, tried, mocked, and crucified under a sign reading “THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS” (27:37). He cries, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The veil tears, the earth shakes, and a Roman centurion says, “Truly this was the Son of God” (27:54). On the third day the tomb is empty. On a mountain in Galilee the risen King says, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” and sends His disciples to the nations, with this promise: “lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (28:18–20).

Christ Typology

The Greater Moses. Matthew shapes his account so that a Jewish reader cannot miss it. Moses was spared as a baby when Pharaoh killed the Hebrew boys. Jesus was spared when Herod killed the boys of Bethlehem. Moses came out of Egypt, passed through the water, and spent forty years in the wilderness. Moses received the law on a mountain. Jesus teaches the law’s full meaning on a mountain, gathered into five discourses, as Moses gave five books. And He says what Moses never could: “But I say unto you.”

The True Israel. Matthew applies Hosea 11:1 to Jesus: “Out of Egypt have I called my son”(2:15). Israel was God’s son, brought out of Egypt, through the sea, and into a forty-year testing in the wilderness, where it failed. Jesus comes out of Egypt, passes through the waters of baptism, and is tested forty days in the wilderness. Where Israel failed, He stands, and He answers the tempter from the very book Moses gave Israel in the wilderness. He is the faithful Son that Israel was meant to be.

The King of the Jews. Matthew frames Jesus’ life with the same title. At the beginning, Gentile wise men ask, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” (2:2). At the end, Gentile soldiers nail that title above His head (27:37). Between the two, He rides into Jerusalem as Zechariah’s lowly King. The throne He was born to was a cross, and from there He was raised to all authority in heaven and earth.

One Greater Than the Temple, Jonah, and Solomon. Jesus claims to be greater than the temple (12:6), greater than Jonah (12:41), and greater than Solomon (12:42). The temple was where God’s presence dwelt. Jonah was the prophet who went down into the deep for three days and came up again. Solomon was the son of David known for wisdom and peace. Jesus is the true dwelling of God, the true sign of resurrection, and the true wise King.

Emmanuel from First to Last. The first chapter names Him “Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (1:23). The last verse ends with His promise, “lo, I am with you alway” (28:20). Matthew’s whole Gospel sits between those two statements. The God who went silent after Malachi did not just speak again. He came in person, and He has not left.

Personal Application

Your past is not a disqualification. The King’s family tree includes a woman who disguised herself as a harlot, a Canaanite harlot, a Moabite widow, and an adulterous king. The book itself was written by a tax collector who worked for Rome. Jesus came “to save his people from their sins,”and He does not choose His people by their résumés.

Seek His reign first. The kingdom of heaven is not just a place you go when you die. It is the rule of the King over your life today: your money, your worry, your anger, your words, your private thought life. The Sermon on the Mount is not a ladder to climb to earn heaven. It is a picture of what His reign looks like in a person who belongs to Him. Start where He started: blessed are the poor in spirit.

Build on the rock. Jesus’ closing picture is not between people who heard His words and people who didn’t. Both builders heard. One did what he heard. The storms hit both houses the same. What decided the outcome was the foundation, and the foundation was obedience.

If you are worn out, come to Him. “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (11:30). Many people are carrying yokes Jesus never gave them: religious performance, the expectations of other people, burdens laid on them by those who should have been shepherds. His invitation is to lay those down and take up His, which fits. He is “meek and lowly in heart,” and with Him you will find rest for your soul.

The commission belongs to you. Make disciples. Not just converts, not just attenders, but learners who follow Jesus and teach others to do the same. You don’t do it on your own authority. He has all authority, and He has promised to be with you every day, to the end of the age.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

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