The Gospel according to Matthew. In the first video we saw how Matthew introduced
Jesus as the Messiah from the line of David, and as a new authoritative teacher
like Moses, and also as Emmanuel which in Hebrew means "God with us." After Jesus
announced and taught about the arrival of God's kingdom and after he brought the
kingdom into day-to-day life among the people of Israel, we saw that Jesus was
accepted by many but rejected by others, especially Israel's religious leaders,
the Pharisees. And so the big question is, "How is this conflict between Jesus and
Israel's leaders going to play itself out?" The next large section, chapters 14
through 20, explore all the different expectations people have about the
Messiah. Jesus keeps healing sick people and twice he even miraculously provides
food for these huge crowds in the desert, one made up of Jewish people and the
other is a non-jewish crowd. And this sign is very similar to what Moses did
for Israel in the wilderness. And so are these people are excited about Jesus,
they think he's the great prophet and the Messiah, but not the religious leaders.
Their view of the Messiah is built on passages like Psalm 2 or Daniel chapter 2,
about a victorious Messiah who is going to deliver Israel and defeat the pagan
oppressors. And from their point of view, Jesus is a false teacher. He's making
blasphemous claims about himself and so there are stories here about them
increasing their opposition, hatching a plan to kill him. And so in response,
Jesus, he withdraws. And he begins teaching his closest disciples what it means for
him to be Israel's Messiah because it is not what anybody expects. So Jesus asked
his disciples-- chapter 16-- he says, "Who do you all say that I am?" And Peter comes up
with the right answer, it seems. He says, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
But then it becomes clear that Peter's thinking about a king who's going to
reign victoriously through military power. And Jesus challenges Peter, saying that
"Yes, I am going to become king, but through a different way." And so Jesus
starts to teach on themes from the prophet Isaiah who said that the
Messianic King would suffer and die for the sins of his own people. And so Jesus,
he was positioning himself as a Messianic king who reigns by becoming a
servant and who would lay down his life for Israel and the nations. Peter and
the disciples, they mostly just don't get it. And so Jesus enters into the fourth
block of teaching followed by a series of teachings after that. And these are
all about the upside down nature of Jesus' Messianic Kingdom--which turns
upside down all of our value systems. So in the community of the servant king you
gain honor by serving others and instead of getting revenge, you forgive and do
good to your enemies. And in Jesus' kingdom you gain true wealth by giving
your wealth away to the poor. To follow the servant Messiah, you must become a
servant yourself. In the next section we watched the two kingdoms clash--Jesus'
kingdom and that of Israel's leader. Jesus comes to Jerusalem for Passover
riding in on a donkey and the crowds are hailing him as the Messiah. Jesus
immediately marches into the courtyard of the temple and he creates this huge
disruption that brings the daily sacrifices to a halt. His actions speak
louder than words here. As Israel's King, Jesus was asserting his royal authority
over the temple, the place where God and Israel met together. And in Jesus' view, the
temple was compromised by the hypocrisy of Israel's leaders and so here he's
challenging their authority and naturally they're deeply offended. And so
they try to trap Jesus and shame him in public debate and they fail. So they end
up just determining to have him killed. In response, Jesus delivers his final
block of teaching. He first offers this passionate critique of the Pharisees
and their hypocrisy. And then he weeps over Jerusalem and its rejection of God
and His Kingdom. Then Jesus withdraws with the disciples and he starts telling
them what's going to happen. He's going to be executed by these leaders, but in
doing so they're going to create their own demise because instead of accepting
Jesus' way of the Peaceful Kingdom they're going to take the road of revolt
against
Rome and so Jerusalem and its temple are going to be destroyed. But Jesus says
that is not the end of the story.
He's going to be vindicated after his death by his resurrection and one day
he'll return and set up his kingdom over all nations. And so in the meanwhile, the
disciples need to stay alert and stay committed to just announcing Jesus and
His Kingdom and spreading the good news. And so with all of that ringing in the
disciples ears, the story comes to its climax. That night Jesus takes the
disciples aside and he celebrates the Passover meal with them.
Passover retells the story of Israel's rescue from slavery through the death of
the Passover lamb. And then Jesus takes the bread and the wine from this meal as
new symbols showing that his coming death would be a sacrifice that would
redeem his people from slavery to sin and evil. After the meal, Jesus is arrested,
he's put on trial before the Sanhedrin, the Council of Jewish leaders. And they
reject his claim to be the Messiah. They charge him with blasphemy against
God. Then Jesus is brought before the Roman governor, Pilate, and he thinks
Jesus is innocent, but he gives in to the pressure from the Jewish leaders and he
sentences Jesus to death by crucifixion. So Jesus is led away by Roman soldiers and
then crucified. Now you'll notice right here in this section that, just like
Matthew did in the opening chapters, he increases the number of references to
the Old Testament. He's trying to show that Jesus' death was not a tragedy or
failure. Rather, it was the surprising fulfillment of all of the old, prophetic
promises. Jesus came as the Servant Messiah spoken of by Isaiah. He was
rejected by his own people but instead of judging them, he is judged on their
behalf,
bearing the consequences of their sin. So the crucifixion scene, it comes to a
close, and Jesus' body is placed in a tomb. But the book ends with a surprising
twist--the last chapter. The disciples, they discover on Sunday morning that
Jesus' tomb is empty. And then all of a sudden people start seeing Jesus alive
from the dead. And the book concludes
with the risen Jesus giving a final teaching called the Great Commission.
Jesus says that he is now the true king of the world and so he sends his
disciples out to all nations with the good news that Jesus is Lord and that
anyone can join his kingdom by being baptized and by following his teachings.
And echoing all the way back to his name, Emmanuel, God with us, from chapter one,
Jesus' last words in the book to his disciples are "I will be with you." It's a
promise of Jesus' presence until the day he finally returns. And that's the Gospel
according to Matthew.