The Gospel of Matthew Episodes
1. Background of the Book
The Gospel of Matthew is the bridge that connects the Bible’s Old Testament with the Bible’s New Testament. The Old Testament revealed God’s creation of the universe and everything in it, God’s creation of humankind in his own image, Adam and Eve’s tragic fall into sin, and God’s promise of a future Messiah to set things right again.
2. Survey of the Book
Let’s do a survey of Matthew’s Gospel. What’s a survey? Basically, we’re going to examine Matthew’s book in broad terms. We’re going to look at the Big Picture: The Presentation of The King (Matthew 1:1-4:11) The Proclamation of The King (Matthew 4:12-16:20) The Passion of The King (Matthew 16:21-28:20) Matthew’s Gospel was not written in chronological order. That way, Matthew could arrange his material to present a simple guiding truth, Jesus was the King of the Jews.
3. Key Scriptures & Theme
Before a King can rule over his subjects, he must be able to govern himself. Early in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the Judean wilderness to be tested and tempted. Read Matthew 4:1-11. What were Satan’s strategies to try and defeat the King? How did Jesus deal with these tests and temptations? Jesus always started his response with three words, “It is written.” Jesus always went to the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) for his response.
4. The Key Players
The Gospels were truly unique for their time. Not only were they a collection of biographies covering the life of Jesus, but they also contained biographical sketches for a host of other amazing personalities. Did you know the Gospels cover more than 50 people from history?
5. Life Applications
One of the main takeaways from Matthew’s Gospel is the identity of Jesus of Nazareth. For the Hebrew mindset, Matthew established Jesus as the “King of the Jews” proclaiming the “Kingdom of Heaven.” However, right from the beginning of Mathew’s Gospel, we get a deeper insight into Jesus Christ’s identity.
6. The Great Takeaway
Probably the greatest takeaway from the Gospel of Matthew is that Jesus Christ is the Messiah who fulfilled all the requirements of the long-awaited “King of the Jews.” Unlike other kingdoms in human history where subjects often died for their king, Matthew revealed a King who died for His subjects – this is the Good News of the Gospel.
