And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV)
Matthew is one of the four Gospels, focusing on the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. This book opens the New Testament after 400 years of relative silence while the stage was prepared for his arrival.
The text presents Jesus as the promised king who demonstrates his legitimacy, virtue, and integrity in every way possible way while being rejected by his people, only to save them in the process. Matthew is concerned to present Jesus as the true promised king and to make clear the validity of his claims. Listeners today stand in a similar place to the original Jewish audience. We need to know the same king and appreciate the significance of Jesus's claims about who he is.
The Big Idea of Matthew
I have taught the Big Idea of Matthew as the following: Jesus is the Promised King. One compelling reason for this is the pair of passages that serve as bookends for the whole Gospel. Matthew 1:1 tells us that Jesus is the son of David, the son of Abraham. This establishes Jesus as a Jew in the line of the king whose kingly line would never end (2 Sam. 7:16). Strikingly, the Gospel ends with Jesus making the claim that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him (Matt. 28:18). Accordingly, the very last words of Matthew’s Gospel are a command, known commonly as the Great Commission, spoken by Jesus who is in the line of king David and Abraham. In this way, Matthew ends in a way that fits well with how he begins, by announcing Jesus as in line with king David, and then concluding with a command from his lips.
An Outline of Matthew
1-4: The King's Introduction
Chapters 1-4 of Matthew give us what I call “The King’s Introduction.” Matthew opens with the genealogy that spans Abraham to Christ, stopping at David and the Babylonian exile, ensuring the count arrives at three sets of fourteen generations. Matthew describes Jesus’s birth, focusing on the virginity of Mary and the visit by the wise men who bring Him gifts, citing Micah 5:2. The wise men flee from King Herod, who decrees that boys two and under be killed. Jesus is taken to Egypt by His parents. The next time we meet Jesus, He is an adult coming to John the Baptist for baptism, who reluctantly does it. When Jesus comes up from the water, the Father voices His approval of Jesus, and the Spirit descends like a dove upon him. At this point, Jesus is driven to be tempted by Satan, whom he resists. After this, Jesus calls His first disciples and begins preaching and healing, drawing large crowds.
5-7: The King's Teaching
Matthew 5-7 showcases the King’s Teaching. This passage, known as the Sermon on the Mount, gives us insight into what Jesus spent His time teaching the people. Jesus covers themes such as happiness, the Law, anger, hatred, revenge, hypocrisy, prayer, forgiveness, priorities, anxiety, discernment, condemnation, and more. This passage does not seem to exhaustively present everything Jesus said on these matters or even to claim that this is all that Jesus said that day on the mountain. Instead, here are some things He taught so that we know the content of his messages. Matthew 5-7 is not intended to be exhaustive but representative.
8-9: The King's Power
Matthew 8-9 presents us with a cluster of miracles by Jesus, who heals a leper, a paralytic (without being present), a woman with a fever, and also casts out many demons. Jesus also calms a storm, commands a horde of demons, forgives a paralytic’s sins before healing him, calls Matthew to follow Him, heals a woman’s flow of blood, raises a dead girl to life (or brings her out of a coma), heals two blind men, and casts a demon out of a mute man, who is then able to speak. Matthew concludes chapter nine with an observation of Jesus’s compassion in healing many more as he went around teaching, calling on His disciples to pray for more workers to be sent to the “harvest” to help. In all, it is a tour de force by Jesus of His absolute authority to command everything from demons to storms, and all obey.
10-13: The King's Identity
The identity of Jesus as king is a unifying theme for chapters 10-13 of Matthew. Jesus sends out His disciples with authority to perform the same signs that He has been doing, along with instructions about how to interact with the people and strengthening them against the opposition He knows they will encounter. A key issue is whether the people will accept the disciples, and Jesus clarifies that the rejection of the disciples is a rejection of Jesus. Some of John the Baptist’s disciples ask Jesus whether He is the one to come, and the rest of chapter eleven expounds on how obvious Jesus’s identity is and how condemnable is the people’s blindness and refusal to recognize him. Jesus is challenged multiple times in chapter twelve, and Jesus’s consistent response is something along the lines of a rebuke to the religious leaders for their steadfast refusal to recognize the Messiah (cf. Matt.12:42).
Section title: 14-15: The King's Compassion
Matthew 14-15 show Jesus as a compassionate king. Chapter fourteen begins with the death of John the Baptist, which, upon hearing about it, prompted Jesus to go off by Himself. A crowd shows up and, instead of retreating further or complaining, Jesus has compassion on them. He teaches them and then miraculously feeds them. Jesus later walks on water to His disciples, comforting them in their terror that it is Him and they need not fear. Jesus heals and teaches more people on the other side of the sea. Jesus has a dispute with religious leaders about what defiles a person, insisting that it is what comes out and not what goes in that defiles a person. Jesus then helps a Canaanite woman after eliciting an expression of faith from her. When a crowd again finds themselves hearing Jesus and being healed by Him, He again has compassion and miraculously multiplies what little they have to feed everyone.
16-18: The King's Godliness
Jesus’s godliness as king is on display in chapters 16-18. This is intended with a double-meaning. As a man, Jesus is godly, referring to his character and virtue. But as the God-man, Jesus is not just a virtuous and godly man. He is God himself. Jesus warns the disciples about the Pharisees in chapter sixteen and also acknowledges to His disciples that He is the Christ. Jesus reiterates the suffering he will undergo and rebukes Peter for admonishing Him for saying such things. Jesus is transfigured or metamorphosized in chapter 17, revealing some of the glory that is His as the God-man. Jesus heals and teaches about grace and forgiveness in chapter 18.
19-25: The King's Righteousness
Chapters 19-25 center on the question of Jesus’s righteousness, which is established over and over again, despite the religious leaders’ disgust with Him. Jesus challenges a man who thinks he is righteous in chapter 19, revealing his love of money. Jesus enters Jerusalem and is welcomed as a king. The religious leaders challenge him consistently through chapter twenty-two when Jesus finally silences them by the force of His argument. Jesus turns the tables in chapter twenty-three, roundly rebuking and condemning the scribes and Pharisees for their corruption and hypocrisy. Jesus describes how things will be when He returns and the judgment He will render, establishing His right and authority to judge the deeds of all people as the righteous king.
26-28: The King's Triumph
Matthew 26-28 showcases the king's triumph, although it does not appear that way at first. We learn in chapter twenty-six that Jesus is going to be crucified in two days, and we receive a window into the council of the religious leaders. Jesus also interprets a woman pouring expensive ointment on His head as anointing for burial. The scene cuts to Judas agreeing to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. This stage is set for Jesus to be arrested and killed.
Jesus celebrates the Passover with His disciples, foretelling the denial of Peter, and then He goes to Gethsemane to pray. He asks the Father to remove the cup but accepts His will. Jesus is betrayed, arrested, tried, crucified, and mocked all the way until death. A rich man buries His body and a guard is set over his tomb. By all accounts, Jesus has lost, except that He hasn’t. Two women go to the tomb, only to find an angel there instead of Jesus. Jesus meets them and tells them he will go to Galilee and see them there. Matthew ends with what we know as the Great Commission, where Jesus claims that all authority and heaven and on earth has now been given to Him. Accordingly, he commands them to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe everything that He has commanded. He promises that He is with them always, even to the end of the age. What seems like a sound and around defeat is really the fulfillment of the plan Jesus said He was enacting.
Benefits of Matthew
Given that Matthew focuses on the life, death, and burial of Jesus Christ and the good news contained in it, the list of benefits is theoretically endless. What distinguishes Matthew from the other gospels is the point of emphasis on Jesus being the son of David and heir to his throne. The issue of authority and being heir to the throne brackets Matthew from beginning to end. Jesus is the son of David, the one who now has received all authority in heaven and on earth. As a result, we are all obligated to Him.
The first benefit we could point out, then, is the clarity with which the authority of Jesus for all people is established. There is nothing outside of His purview. His realm is reality itself. What is left to His disciples is to make sure all the nations know that, to begin with.
As Matthew ends with the instruction to teach others all the things that Jesus has commanded, it is helpful to recognize the many teachings that Matthew reports in his gospel. The sermon on the mount is fairly comprehensive in scope, helping us to understand who we are, how we ought to live, and helping us to understand true virtue and the danger of false confidence. The warnings against the Pharisees and hypocritical religious leaders are also instructive for us. There can be no superficial, artificial relationship with Jesus. He is king not in theory, not an abstraction, not in the future, but now. That fact should dominate our mindset and way of being far more than it often does.
We can also consider what kind of a king we have in Jesus. For those who trust in Him, for those who know Him, what a king He is. Not only does He rule over us, but He redeemed us from condemnation and rebellion to give us a right relationship with Him that can be enjoyed forever in His glorious presence rather than endured forever under His righteous wrath.
For those who read Matthew, there can be no reasonable doubt about His identity. It is self-evidently and compellingly presented. If we miss the benefit of the opportunity to consider whether we have reckoned with the fact that Jesus is king, we will have missed perhaps the most basic possible benefit of Matthew. The thrust is His authority. Our reaction should be submission. And when it is not, when we find it ourselves or others a proud and stubborn resistance to Jesus, the alarm bells ought to go off even more. Jesus is not here, but his commands remain in force, and all are obligated to them. If we will not submit to him and come to God through Him, we will have to reckon with Him when we are called to render an account of our lives.