Matthew Intro
Intro
Matthew’s purpose is to show that God has kept his ancient promises to Israel through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. The long-expected reign of heaven is now coming to earth, bringing the Jewish story to its climax. Matthew begins by highlighting that Jesus was the son of David, Israel’s most famous king, and the son of Abraham, Israel’s founding patriarch. Jesus is the true Israelite and God’s promised Messiah.
The Messiah is shown as reliving the story of Israel—going down into the Jordan River, facing temptation in the wilderness, gathering twelve disciples as twelve new tribes, ascending a mountain to deliver a new Torah, etc. The author highlights the idea of Jesus as a new Moses by collecting his teachings into five long speeches. These are marked off by some variation of the phrase When Jesus had finished saying these things. Just as the Torah had five books, Matthew presents five major sections.
The book concludes by telling how Jesus brought about the great new act of redemption for his people. As in the story of Israel’s Exodus, a Passover meal is celebrated and then deliverance comes. Jesus gives his life for the sake of the world and is then raised from the dead. At the beginning of the book, Jesus is given the name Immanuel, meaning “God with us.” At the end, Jesus sends his followers into the world with the promise that surely I am with you always.
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The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®
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Matthew Intro
Intro
About Matthew's Gospel
A man called Matthew wrote this book at some time between the years AD 59 and AD 70. He was also called Levi. Matthew was a Jew. His job was to take taxes from people. Then he became a disciple of Jesus. Matthew wrote the book in the Greek language. He wrote it for Jews who understood Greek. In his book, Matthew wrote many things about the messages that God's prophets had written a long time ago. He showed that they had now become true. The Jews who read Matthew's book would know all about these things.
Matthew tells us the good news about the kingdom of God. He tells us about the birth of Jesus and how he lived in Israel. He tells us how Jesus died. He tells us how he rose up after death and he went to live with God again. He also tells us why Jesus came to live in the world. Matthew explains the things that Jesus taught the people. He tells us about many things that Jesus did.
The Jews were waiting for God to send a special person to them. They called this person the Messiah. It means the person whom God had chosen to be king. ‘Christ’ in the Greek language is the same as ‘Messiah’ in the Hebrew language.
The Gospel of Matthew is in eight parts:
1. What happened when Jesus was born (1:1—2:23).
2. What happened when Jesus began his work (3:1—4:11).
3. What happened when Jesus was working in Galilee (4:12—14:12).
4. What happened when Jesus went to other places in the north of Israel (14:13—17:21).
5. What happened when Jesus returned to Galilee (17:22—18:35).
6. What happened when Jesus taught the people in Judea and Perea (19:1—20:34).
7. What happened in the city of Jerusalem in the last week of Jesus' life (21:1—27:66).
8. People see Jesus alive again after he died (28:1-20).
(Galilee, Judea and Perea were regions of the country of Israel.)
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