Matthew Overview for tomorrow

The Gospel of Matthew

Gospel/Godspell/Good News.  There are 4 Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  The first three Gospels are called “synoptic” because they “see together with a common view” (the word synoptic literally means “together sight”).  It is like shooting the same movie from 3 different angles.

Matthew is written for the Jews.  Matthew’s emphasis is Jesus was the Messiah as foretold in the Old Testaments from the Prophets.  Matthew quotes from the Old Testament more than any other New Testament author.

The keyword in Matthew is “fulfilled” through the prophet…

You may have heard the book of Matthew referred to as the “Gospel of the Kingdom”, the term kingdom of heaven is used 43 times in this book.

Matthew’s name means Gift of the Lord.  Matthew was a man originally names Levi.  If you read the Old Testament you would be able to guess just from his name that he was born into a priesthood family (the Levites).  However, he chose to be a Tax Collector.  The tax collectors were extremely corrupt: they would pre-pay the taxes for people and then charge the people heavy interest and pocket it.   We can also guess that he made a lucrative living.  This was against the Law of Moses stated in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, so the tax collectors had bad reputations with the Jewish Leaders. But he gave it all up when Jesus called him to follow him.  (Ch. 9)

The book of Matthew has 3 Great Discourses

• Sermon on the Mount
• Kingdom Parables
• Olivet Discourse

The book focuses on Jesus is the King of the Jews.  He writes about Jesus being the son of Abraham  (fulfilling the Covenant that He would bless all nations) and the son of David ( fulfilling the Covenant that He would establish a Kingdom that would last forever).

If you have read through the Old Testament, this might be your favorite Gospel since we will be looking at the prophecies of the Old Testament being fulfilled on every page.