If you have your Bibles, and I hope you do,
yeah, take those out. I'll meet you in Matthew chapter 1. Matthew is the first
of the four gospels in the New Testament. The Bible is divided into two
major sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Matthew is the first
book of the New Testament. I'm excited about uh starting this new series that
we're about to go through. It might take us a year to to make our way all the way
through it, but we're going to walk through the Gospel of Matthew.
Before we get started and going through the text, I want to use today as kind of an introduction. So, today will feel
different uh than than a typical week. The book of Matthew is full of the
teachings of Jesus. But I I want to I want to give you some background information, some context
uh to this gospel. We use uh uh this
term. In fact, there's a bunch of terms within this gospel that uh we may or may
not know the definition of. For example, the word gospel. What does the word
gospel mean? Okay, you just filled in the blank. Some of you already know that gospel means
good news. Do you know that when it was first when they were compiling the
written text, the first readers, in fact the first Christians would be surprised
today to know that we call it a gospel. They would be surprised that we call it
good news. Why? Because they just watched Jesus get
crucified. I mean, they watched how he was treated. And you're calling it good news because
see, throughout the Roman Greco world, uh, it was it was used. We get our we
get our English word evangelism from the Greek word that means good news. And
they would use that throughout the ro Greco Roman world to to announce royalty
has been born. In other words, if a king and a queen had a child, they would send evangelists
out to the to the nation, to the nations, and pronounce that royalty has been
born, the king and queen have had a child, or they would send an evangelist out when a major victory was won, a
battle was won, they would send an evangelist out to go and share the good news. So, how did
this word evangelist come to be associated with a written
book? Well, it's one of the things that we're
going to be discussing as we work our way through this.
Yeah, we we have to recognize that they would have been surprised that we call these gospels.
that word wasn't attached to it until they started compiling the books together
because now we know why we call it good news. We have that information. So today
uh I want to look real quickly at the four different gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John before we turn our
attention fully on the Ga Gospel of Matthew. uh there are some distinguishing markers of each one that
I want to point out to you just to give you a reference point to go by. So the first gospel is Matthew
and his audience was Jewish Christians. Jewish Christians. That's who he was
focused on when he wrote out his gospel message. It was written to show that
Jesus was the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy of the Old Testament. All the things that were the prophets wrote
about the prophecies that are in the Old Testament, Matthew is writing a bunch of Jewish people that had become Christians
to convince them, to show them he's the one that they were writing about. He's the fulfillment of those Old Testament
scriptures. That's what Matthew's audience
was being taught. That in fact, it begins, if you'll look there in chapter one, it goes through the genealogy of
Jesus. We're going to speak much more about that next week, but it takes Jesus's genealogy all the way back to
father Abraham, which would have given Jesus street cred immediately. Matthew
didn't waste any time telling his audience who this guy was,
who Jesus was. He was and takes him back through his lineage all the way to
father Abraham. The focus of Matthew's gospel is Jesus
as the king and Messiah. King and Messiah who fulfills the law and the
prophets. And so if there were well if there was a a short way to think of
Matthew's gospel, you could just write these words, here is your king.
Here is your king. Well, what about Mark? Mark, his audience was Roman
Christians, Gentile Christians, particularly those facing persecution.
It's the shortest of the gospels. It's action-packed like the other ones aren't. Matthew focuses a lot on the
teaching of Jesus. Mark focuses in on the actions of Jesus, but the focus of
Mark's message is Jesus as the servant, suffering servant.
In Mark's gospel, he explains a bunch of Jewish customs, which would indicate to you and I that
his audience wasn't Jewish because he had to explain these things.
He uses Latin words. He uses Roman timekeeping. He emphasizes Jesus's suffering and calls disciples to take up
their cross and follow him. So, the focus is Jesus as the suffering servant.
And if there was a short way to remember Mark's focus, it would be here is God's
servant. Here is God's servant. Well, what about Luke? Luke's audience was Greekeaking
Christians, Gentile Christians, those particularly those who spoke Greek. In
fact, you look at the beginning of his gospel account and he addresses most
excellent Theophilles, a Greek name. I found it necessary to to make an orderly
account, oh excellent Theophilos. And so he is writing to a Greekspeaking
audience. His his gospel account is very detailoriented. Luke is a doctor, a
physician, and he covers details. He emphasizes
Jesus's compassion on on outcasts. He women, poor people, children, Samaritans, tax collectors, sinners. He
has compassion on those people. Luke's gospel is universally scoped. It's for
everyone. It's for everyone. So, the focus of Luke's gospel is Jesus as the savior of
all people. Savior of all people. If you wanted to think of a short little
way of remembering Luke's gospel, here is the perfect man.
Here is the perfect man. Well, what about John's gospel? John's gospel is different from the first three. His is
more theological in thinking. Uh it's it's a broader audience. It's the Jews
and Gentiles alike. You know, one of the things I forgot to
talk about when when I mentioned gospel, it being good news, how they would send evangelists out to share the good news.
I don't know if I have told you guys the good news. I have another granddaughter.
Hey, royalty has been born.
Miss uh Claire June Bundick has been born last week. So, we're excited
excited about her. Uh, John John's gospel, his audience is Jews and Gentiles. It's universal.
It is uh written to a a theologically mature audience. They they're putting
they're connecting the dots and understanding who Jesus is. It's written later than the other gospels. It's more
reflective, theologically rich in its writing, his writing. And it John
explicitly states why he wrote it at the end of his gospel. John 20 21 there's
not enough. He says there's not enough books to contain everything, but I've written these down that you may believe
Jesus is the son of God. He he gives it to us plain. John presents Jesus with
seven I am statements. I am the bread of life. I am the good shepherd. I am the
gate. Uh so he uses that to point out and to build this understanding of who
Jesus is. So the focus of John's gospel is John Jesus as the divine son of God,
the word made flesh. And he has an emphasis on believing
for eternal life. For God so loved the world, you can say it with me. For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only son that whosoever whosoever
believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
John's gospel. If you wanted a little way to remember John's gospel, here is your God.
Here is your God. So together, these four perspectives give us a complete picture of who Jesus is and what he's
accomplished. The differences aren't contradictions to one another, but they're complimentary to one another.
They emphasize different aspects to Jesus's life and ministry that would
most resonate with the audiences that they were writing to.
So let's look at Matthew. I'm hoping that today as we look into some of the
unique characteristics of Matthew that it'll wet your whistle. There might even be someone here today that's not that's
not into Jesus. I Joel, I came to church because somebody invited me. Joel, it's been since I was a kid, since the last
time I've been in church. And I'm hoping that today as we start this journey,
this is a perfect time for you to be here because we're going to start a journey through the book of Matthew, the
Gospel of Matthew, learning about this man named Jesus, about this
God named Jesus.
