Structure and Themes in the Gospel of Matthew

Transcript

all right well thanks uh brother Jim and thank you uh everybody it's good to be here with you um what I'd like to do is look at the gospel of Matthew in terms of its structure and some of the themes that's a study that I've been working on for a couple of years and happy to be able to share some of it with you this evening for us the gospel of Matthew has 28 chapters and just under 1100 verses but it's good to remember that it wasn't all always this

way the first English Bible to be divided into chapters and verses was the Geneva Bible of

1560 chapters were not introduced into the Bible until the 1200s almost exactly 800 years ago and verses were added into the chapters quite a little while after that the New Testament for example was not divided into verses until

1550s so that makes the Geneva Bible fairly quick to get on board with this new innovation of putting verses into the chapters uh what you see on the screen largely there is a fimile page of the beginning of Matthew's gospel I've circled chapters one chapter two headings in in red and just pointed out with some blue arrows the division of the first chapter into some verses this is an innovation at least as far as the verses go in the Geneva Bible it wasn't that way when Matthew wrote his

gospel he worked in an age he lived in an age wrote in an age when there were no chapter and verse

divisions and Matthew used words and phrases to give structure and continuity to his gospel and I just touch a bit on this this evening but I hope you'll be able to see as as I've appreciated that he was a Master at the Strategic use and placement of what we might call verbal

cues so just to begin with then the structure of the Gospel as it would appear Matthew wrote it and there on the left of your screen is exactly what it was and instead of being 28 Parts there are just seven Parts

there Matthew's gospel begins with an introduction which covers a bit more more than the first three

chapters and it ends with a climax which is almost exactly the last three

chapters in between Matthew's gospel is divided into five

divisions and um the introduction sets the stage for the ministry of Jesus the five divisions exactly cover the Lord's public Ministry exactly from the moment that he goes into Galilee to begin till the moment that he leaves the temple at the end exactly covering his public Ministry and the climax defines the outcome of his

ministry now the way we're able to finally uh uh become aware of this brothers and sisters is the fact that Matthew uses six bridging statements to divide up the seven portions of his

gospel the six bridging statements are key to the structure of his gospel each bridging statement identifies a juncture point in the ministry of Jesus and each statement begins with something that has just ended and ends with something that will now begin we just take a look at these the first bridging statement is in Matthew

4:12 now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison he departed to Galilee

John's Ministry has come to an end Jesus is about to do

something the second bridging statement is at the end of chapter 7 and so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings so something is ended he came down from the mountain and great multitudes followed him the next bridging statement is at Matthew 11:1 and you'll begin to see the similarity in the phrasings now it came to pass when Jesus finished commanding his 12 disciples that he departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities the next one now it came to pass when Jesus had finished these Parables that he departed from there and when he'd come into his own country dot dot dot the fifth bridging statement is this now it came to pass when Jesus had finished these sayings that he departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea Beyond Jordan so right away we see the first bridging statement where he departed to Galilee now that the fifth bridging statement he departed from Galilee and it's safe to assume and I think right to assume that those first four divisions cover his Galilean

Ministry the last bridging statement is Matthew 26 verse1 now it came to pass when Jesus had finished all these sayings that he said to his disciples the son of man will be delivered up to be

crucified so he's been departing from one place to another departing from one place to another and now he will be making a departure of a totally different nature so those are the six bridging statements and they divide up the gospel into its seven

Parts each of the divisions brothers and sisters each of the five divisions is further divided into two main

sections each is divided into a Ministry and a discourse portion and it's always in that order always Ministry then discourse and the discourse will bear some relationship to the ministry that precedes

it so for example if we look at the end of bridging statement one he departed to Galilee what is going to follow now in a very short period of of Matthew's gospel in chapter the first Ministry phase in

Galilee the next bridging statement Begins by saying when he ended these sayings so something in terms of a teaching has receded that and of course it has it's his first discourse The Sermon on the Mount the second bridging statement ends with he came down from the mountain great multitudes followed him and were now poised for a continuation of his Galilean

Ministry the next bridging statement begins uh now it came to pass when Jesus had finished commanding his twelves 12 disciples so it has just been preceded by another discourse this time a commission to his 12 Apostles to go out to the cities of Israel

and that's discourse two commissioning Apostles to Israel that bridging statement ends with he departed from there to teach and preach in their cities and so a third Galilean portion begins and each of these Galilean portions will have specific emphases and we'll try to look at some of that as we go along the next bridging statement begins when Jesus to finish these Parables so he has just finished the discourse of division 3 which is teaching in parable

that briding statement ends he departed from there came to his own country and his own country of course is Nazareth and so we have a final Galilean phase of the work in Ministry 4 very extensive uh from chapters 13 through to uh chapter 17 then the next bridging statement says when Jesus had finished these says so again he has just finished a discourse again to his disciples and this time he's announcing to them things concerning uh his wider

church that bridging statement ends with he departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea Beyond Jordan so as Galilean Ministry is over and he is about to begin the last uh Ministry division that Matthew records for us and that is taking him to Jerusalem and with very strong Focus uh in chapters 2122 and 23 of his ministry in the temple

that ends with the last bridging statement now it came to pass when just had finished all these saying so again it has just been preceded by the bridging statement has just been preceded by a discourse and that we know of as the Mount Olivet prophecy so there we have the way Matthew has structured his gospel the seven Parts in each division having a Ministry and discourse portion uh always in that order and and bearing some relationship to each other

the first mission statement bridging statement is says that when Jesus heard that John had been put into prison so John's Ministry has ended and the introduction to the gospel has ended Jesus is now in the spotl and the last bridging statement says the son of man will be delivered up to be crucified and that is Matthew segue into the climax of his gospel with the trials the crucifixion death and Resurrection

right so there there in Broad outline is the structure built around Matthew's bridging statements just a word or two about the ministry and discourses the ministry portions are event

centered and built into those often times some related teaching some ad hoc teaching some spontaneous teaching the discourse on the other hand is structured teaching with no related events taking place or very few if they do they're minimal and they would involve disciples the ministry portions include public interaction a lot of public interaction and miracles his mighty works the discourse portions are entirely for disciples learning with no Miracles involved in those particular aspects of or parts of Matthew's

gospel there's another thing that's kind of interesting in in terms of how Matthew structures things which I think tends to to confirm the fact that we are are seeing a a real pattern um and that is the way he organizes the five discourses they have symmetry to the way they're organized in the gosp in in Matthew's gospel the first of course is The Sermon on the Mount and so he went up on a mountain and when he was dis was seated his disciples came to him now look at the last discourse which is the Mount alet prophecy he sat on the Mount of Olives the disciples came to him

privately the second when he commissions the apostles to go to the to the lost sheep of the tribes of Israel which he will then follow up on there's no specific place where that commission is given we presume him to be in Galilee and that's all it's more open-ended the fourth is the same way as he anticipates the the Inception of his church the place where he gives this discourse to his disciples as

unspecified and the middle one forms the kind of symmetrical Pivot Point that's the teaching in Parables when he went out of the house and sat by the Sea and then went into the house having dismissed the multitudes so on a mountain unspecified in fact sitting on a mountain unspecified sitting by the Sea unspecified sitting on the mountain and that's that's fairly characteristic of Matthew not only is he a Master of the use of of words and phrases but also in terms of structure and symmetry uh quite a lot of that as we go in through his gospel all right so so much for the structure let's think a little bit about the themes of Matthew's gospel and one in particular to get started

with you know if I ask you brothers and sisters which gospel teaches that we must be born from above to enter the kingdom of God which gospel would come your mind you know Matthew Mark Luke or

John of course if you're thinking John's gospel you're thinking the same as I am we have this record in John chapter 3 where Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews this man came to Jesus by night and said to him Rabbi we know that you're a teacher come from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him

Jesus answered and said to him most assuredly I say to you unless one is born again

which implies born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God so John makes it quite clear we must be born again to see the kingdom of God or Jesus makes it clear in John's

record what is easy to miss uh brothers and sisters less obvious to us is that Matthew has three passages that teach the same thing here we

are unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees you will by no means enter the kingdom of

God not everyone shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven uh but he who does the will of my Father in

heaven and the third one unless you're converted and become as Little Children You Will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven right each one of those is saying essentially what Jesus said to Nicodemus and if we set them out side by side it becomes more obvious if we read each column vertically we've got what the passage says John 3 I say to you unless one is born again you cannot see the kingom of thr and so forth if we read them horizontally we see the obvious comparisons I say to you I say to you not everyone who says to me I say to you unless unless but unless skip down to the last one for the moment he cannot see the kingdom of God you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven shall enter the kingdom of God you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven and then look at this one that we

skipped in John's gospel Jesus says to Nicodemus you must be born

again in Matthew's gospel he's telling us what being born again looks like

your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and

Pharisees he who does the will of my Father in Heaven you are converted and become as little children humble Matthew 18 will tell us so while John tells us we must be born again Matthew is going to tell us through his gospel brothers and sisters what being born again looks

like all right let's just set that on the side for the moment so we're not going to stray very far from that but I want to ask you another question what key word is used more than any other in the gospel of Matthew and sets it apart from all the other

gospels well we might think King and Kingdom because it's rather common knowledge amongst us that Matthew is the gospel of the king and here are the numbers on that

as far as the word King is concerned this is the number of time that each of the gospel writers uses that I happen to be referring in this case uh making the accounts based on the new King James translation and the Strong's numbers up there next to the

word so Matthew does exceed the others in both of those terms but if you look across the line John has a lot also to say about ma about Jesus as the king

and when we come to the term Kingdom we must never suppose that Matthew's got a corner on the market here because Luke also has a lot to say about the kingdom it turns out as far as what word is distinctively Matthews or not distinctively but dominantly Matthews has a different answer and here it is the use of the words heaven and Heavenly they're of course related to each other and the numbers are outstanding

um I said about this study as I said a couple of years ago and the first thing that I did uh in a kind of simplistic way was to um try to

determine what words are used how many times in all the gospels and there's a fairly easy way to do that uh Bible apps will let you do that sort of thing and After figuring out how many times each word was used in each of the gospels and you start going down the line and you get rid of the the the th and the ANS and the you know the was and the worse you know you have words that stand out and as I went down the list Heaven jumped off the page

yet because Matthew uses the term Heaven 77 times and Heavenly five in fact he uses both of those more than the other gospels put

together and so it immediately begs a question for us you know what does Matthew say about

heaven and um

the first thing I think that might come to our mind as we realize from just passages we read a moment ago that Matthew uses the expression Kingdom of Heaven in fact he's the only gospel writer who does and he uses it 33 times in the in the new King

James no other book of the Bible in fact uses the expression Kingdom of Heaven the closest it comes to that I would say is probably Daniel 2:44 and we know the passage well it it kind of next the ideas the in the days of these Kings the god of Heaven shall set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed so the god of heaven will set up a kingdom and that's certainly the Kingdom of Heaven because it comes from God but Matthew uses it exclusively as of this expression Kingdom of Heaven but then you look at the numbers again Kingdom of Heaven 33 times Heaven 77 times that still leaves 44 times that Matthew is using the term term

Heaven other than kingdom of heaven and the 44 times is still almost 50% more than any of the other gospel writers so we're back to our question what does Matthew say about heaven and here's the next what do you know what it is what's the next most important thing that Matthew says about

heaven here it is you have a father in Heaven you have a father who is in heaven we have a heavenly father and here are the numbers

Matthew again dominates the field here in fact all of Matthew's uses of the word Heavenly are heavenly father

right and we begin to ask ourselves you know what's going on here and there is a connection brothers and

sisters these ideas go

together and don't look now but we've come back to our born from above theme

we come back to it we have a father in Heaven and the inheritance that we will receive is the kingdom of heaven so to to paraphrase the Born Again passage you know if you have a father in

Heaven you will enter the Kingdom of Heaven you you will inherit the kingdom of

heaven and so it begins to emerge for us brothers and sisters that Matthew has a dominant bornn again

theme and we have a father in

Heaven which means we have to be born from above to have a father we've got to be born we've got to be born from

above and what we inherit is the Kingdom of Heaven that comes from above and I think that's probably the answer to why Matthew uses the expression Kingdom of Heaven exclusively because he wants us to understand if our father is God in heaven then we shall inherit the Kingdom that comes from him the kingdom of heaven and so Matthew is going to show us is showing us what it looks like to be the father's

children and we already saw a couple of passages of that we'll see more he also shows us what the inheritance is that comes from him that comes from God when we are his

children but of course it's not just Matthew's doing this is it it's Jesus who done this and Matthew is recording what Jesus has taught and it's Jesus who shows us what it looks like to be the father's child he's the son of God so we look at Jesus and we see the embodiment of the born from above

life and Jesus by bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Israel is showing us what the inheritance is that comes from the father when we are his children

now coming back to the discourses and coming back to the idea of symmetry in Matthew's

gospel there's a beautiful pair of passages brothers and sisters that help us to put these ideas together to know that the way of life the born from above way of

life with a father in

Heaven makes us HS to the kingdom of heaven that he will give us

and these two passages well there are many passages but but these two Matthew again as the master of of of simetry puts at the beginning of the first discourse and the end of the last discourse and I don't think that's

accidental he may not have had numbers chapters and verses but he had verbal structure so the beginning of the first discourse well it's the beginning of The Sermon on the Mount we know how that begins begins with the Beatitudes and it's life from above poor in spirit those who mourn not just the common mourning of mankind but mourn the separation the gulf between God and man because of sin those who are Meek

teachable those who hunger and thirst for

righteousness

merciful pure in heart

peacemakers persecuted for righteousness

sake and I think if we just think about it brothers and sisters none of these are qualities that are natural to us none of them and unless they are inculcated in us you know engendered in Us by God we don't develop these things to anything like the degree that they can be developed

he is he works in our lives through the teaching of the Lord Jesus he works in our lives to engender these kinds of qualities they are life from above qualities and what's the inheritance the Kingdom of Heaven those who mourn are comforted the meek inherit the earth those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled the merciful will obtain Mercy the pure in heart see God the peacemakers called the children of God there we are again sons of

God persecuted for righteousness sake theirs is the kingdom of heaven and again a little bit of Matthew's symmetry the first and last are are our our book endered with the kingdom of

heaven and of course one other thing we mustn't Overlook blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed I think brothers and sisters first of all because these qualities are not natural to us and if we begin to develop these it's by the grace of God it's the influence of the teaching of his son by the power of His spirit that can begin to teach us how to be born Spirit how to mourn for the right

things how to be meek how to hunger for thirst for righteousness and be merciful and so forth that's a huge blessing that's an enormous blessing in our sad world

and we're blessed too because the inheritance is ofs the kingdom of

heaven so these all go together and they they they illustrate how Matthew is showing us what the born-again life looks like and what the inheritance is that will come from God from the Father in heaven when we are born from

God now we go all the way to the end of discourse five that's the end of the alet prophecy uh uh yes the alet prophecy Matthew 25 when the son of man comes in his glory and all the Holy Angels with him then he will sit on the throne of his glory so we're on the cusp of the

kingdom and what is the inheritance that Jesus says to those on his right hand well it's there's the passages Matthew 25 31 to 40 it actually goes on to 46 but the verses we're looking at are those

the inheritance from above notice the Echoes of the Beatitudes come you blessed of my father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world that's the inheritance that comes from above and what does the Born Again life look

like you gave me food you gave me drink you took me in in you clothed me you visited me you came to me you did it to one of the least of these my brethren you did it to

me and again I would suggest uh brothers and sisters that we don't begin to do these things to the degree that we can until we become self forgetting people like our lord Jesus and inculcate they have have engendered in US those beatitude qualities and then these things come much more natural to us you did these things this is the life from above come you blessed of my father inherit the

kingdom it goes

together so Matthew is the gospel born again life we're born from above we have a father now who is in heaven yes he's the Father the creator of all mankind in a general sense but now we have a father in the spiritual sense in the moral

sense we receive new life from him by the working of his holy spirit in the Lord Jesus

Christ and our inheritance comes from him it is from above it is the kingdom of heaven and so if we are born again we will enter in John's words the kingdom of God or the Kingdom of

Heaven all right let's move from there back to the the five divisions and see how Matthew develops certain themes in these divisions and they're not certainly unrelated to what we've been

saying there again is the basic structure and let's just look at the divisions now exactly covering the Lord's public Ministry and as we do there's a progression of themes that develop in Matthew's

gospel and the first two divisions divisions 1 and two when Jesus has just come into Galilee and now for the first few chapters of that in Matthew's gospel Jesus is bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Israel he is showing Israel and us through the the gospel what the kingdom of heaven looks

like in division

three we come face to face with Israel's tragic resp response to what has been done in their presence the kingdom is brought to them and their their response is

tragic there are disciples who have gathered to Jesus to be sure and are gradually learning and growing in their in their new

life but there's a large proportion of Israel that remains unresponsive or even in opposition to what Jesus is doing and interestingly just before we go any further than this

look at the structure right five divisions division three is the center

division in the ministry portion of division three there are two parts with a center the center of the middle division brothers and sisters is the conceptual Center of Matthew's gospel we know it well we've probably read it many times it almost seems to be a a disconnect but it isn't a disconnect at all in the middle of this tragic exection of Israel's response to to the kingdom brought by

Jesus we have the prayer of Jesus I thank thee father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou has hidden these things from the wise and prudent and reveal them to

babes those in Israel who esteemed themselves wise and prudent from the common people right on up to the religious leaders who esteemed themselves as wise and prudent that it's all been hidden from

them and those babes to whom it has been revealed are the disciples who give up the Comforts in many cases of of this kind of life and follow Jesus and learn from him that's the center of Matthew's gospel in the fourth division out of um basically the last part of chapter 13 14 15 16 into

17 the ministry portion there has two important themes if Israel is not

responding to Jesus who on Earth do they think he is I mean of all people on the face of the Earth Israel has the methanic mindset going all the way back as we know to to King David and the promises to David they were looking for a

massan and now Jesus comes and in those first two divisions we get some very very effective statements one is he taught them as one with authority and not as the scribes so his teaching is is

Monumental and they also as he performs his mighty works his healings and and and so forth they say it's never been so seen in

Israel and yet with all of these things being presented to them by the Lord Jesus their response to him is you know is is

tragic yeah they're like children sitting in the marketplace you we piped you and you haven't danced we mourned you you haven't lamented you just sit

there and so they've got to come to grips with who this man is and he leaves that to them he leaves it to us as well you know that we need to come to the conclusion as to who this Jesus is because the whole heart and soul of our faith revolves around

that and while that question is being played out is playing out in division four of Matthew's gospel we begin to get clear signs on what Jesus does and what he says that the Kingdom of Heaven which has been brought so graciously to Israel is going to go beyond

Israel in fact just a little incidental Point here because I don't know that we'll get to it brothers and sisters we're we're already halfway through in more but the word church

Ecclesia is used just three times in the

gospels when you get to the book of Acts of course it emerges because from the day of Pentecost onward the church emerges and it's developing but the term only occurs three times in the gospels all three in the Book of Matthew Gospel of Matthew and all three in division

four the Kingdom of Heaven is going to go beyond Israel and Jesus is now introducing us to the concept of the

church finally with the first four divisions passed and the Galilean Ministry over the last division brings all the issues to converge on Jerusalem everything the Kingdom of Heaven is brought to them his identity question is brought to them their tragic response emerges again you know the idea that the Kingdom of Heaven is going to be given to someone else if they if they refuse to accept it all of that comes together especially in his Temple Ministry in in Ministry 5 of um of of division five so they're the themes now in whatever time we've got left uh 20 25 minutes I'd like to look at these in just a bit more detail and show you how the evidence for these themes uh can be gathered together so in divisions 1 and two Jesus brings the Kingdom of Heaven to Israel if we want to know what the kingdom is going to be like if we want to know what the Kingdom of Heaven is all about then we need to Simply look at what Jesus did in his ministry and particular in what Matthew records in these first two divisions from chap 4:12 to the end of chapter

10 we're going through this portion of Matthew from the 1 to the third bridging

statements his ministry in Galilee begins this way from that time Jesus began to preach and to say

repent and that is part of the Born Again life it's it's fundamental for the bornn again life is

repentance repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at

hand he will develop that in Ministry 1 he will continue to expand on it in Ministry two and you may remember you know at the end of Matthew 9 which is toward the end of ministry 2 that Jesus has compassion on the people of Israel because they're as sheep having no Shepherd and he says to his disciples pray the Lord of the Harvest that he will send laborers out into his Harvest and at the end of ministry 2 Jesus now with almost a sense of urgency it would through his 12 disciples and sends them out to the lost sheep of the House of Israel to the places where he himself would follow up it's as if him doing this work himself is just not adequate he's got to multiply the kingdom message to Israel as far and as fast as he can and so there is this discourse this commission to the apostles in chapter 10 and he says to them as you go preach saying the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and immediately he goes on to say heal the sick cleanse the lepers raise the Dead cast out demons freely you have received freely give so that is a a big element of the Kingdom of

Heaven something else about these first two

divisions that they go together again Matthew uses verbal cues to show us that Ministry 1 ends just before the uh The Sermon on the Mount seeing the multitudes he went up on a mountain

when that ends and Ministry to begins when he had come down from the mountain great multitudes followed him you see the the verbal connects that are going on there these two divisions go

together something else shows us that the summmer that Matthew gives of the first galileon portion Matthew 4:23 and the second galileon portion Matthew 9:25 are virtually

identical and Jesus what about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people so the preaching that he preached and the healing that he healed those things brought the Kingdom of Heaven to

Israel Matthew 9:35 then Jesus went about all the cities and Villages teaching in their synagogues preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease of among the people virtually identical statements summarizing these parts and telling us Matthew's telling us in in with these verbal connects that these two Ministry portions go together and what we are seeing is what the Kingdom of Heaven is all

about discourse one The Sermon on the Mount is the longest discourse in Matthew's

gospel and you just look at we've already looked at the Beatitudes it is the king of Life

morally poor in spirit mourning Meek hungering and thirsting for righteousness merciful pure in heart

peacemakers righteous to the point of of being persecuted those are the qualities the moral qualities of the Kingdom Life and in Ministry 2 Matthew 8 1- 9:35 we have the most comprehensive set of Jesus miracles

anywhere in the gospels and we see the Kingdom of Heaven what it is like

physically the leper is cleansed dead are raised gyrus is little girl although he's not named by name in Matthew his little 12-year-old girl raised from the dead the blind sea the palsied man but down from the roof is Forgiven and healed the those with the the great afflictions of demons are are clothed in their right minds they're they're they're

healed so the Kingdom of Heaven is very tangible it's very moral and it's very tangible and it's very physical and that's the kingdom that Matthew I think is telling us Jesus has brought nigh the Kingdom of Heaven is at

hand so there it is divisions 1 and

two we come to division three

and Israel's response to these

wonders just leaves us in in in sadness brothers and sisters and we've got to say to ourselves would we do any

better and now we're between the third and the fourth bridging

statements and the third bridging statement sets us up to expect more of the same kind of ministry now it came to pass when Jesus finished commanding his 12 disciples that he departed from there to teach and preach in their cities so he has sent them out to take the kingdom message farther and faster and wider Israel and now he is going to in an exhaustive follow-up work go and preach teach and preach in their cities so we're poised at the beginning of this third division for more Kingdom Ministry and undoubtedly there was more Kingdom Ministry that's not what Matthew's going to tell us any

he changes the emphasis in his

gospel and what we now find again verbal cues the kinds of words and phrases that tip us off we now find in division three that Matthew is packed With These Warnings they're warnings from Jesus woe to you in the Judgment in the day of

judgment and there are the numbers on the screen there for how many times Matthew uses each of those Luke uses the woe to you uh uh expression uh more than Matthew does right now let's just look at how Matthew uses it he has it 10 times and he has it in just two

contexts the first is here in the response of Jesus to Israel in the warnings of Jesus to Israel for their lack of response

the other eight temps are in the fifth Ministry portion in the temple and you know them well woe to you scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites you do this that and the other thing and don't do what you should be doing Mercy judgment faith that sort of

thing in the judgment is used two times in Matthew and both of them here in Ministry 3 in the day of judgment four times in Matthew's gospel three times here in Ministry three and once in the preceding discourse when he sent his disciples out to preach it's warning them what to expect so now Matthew's focus is on Israel's tragic response and the warnings that Jesus gives to Israel for their

failure to be more than children sitting in the marketplace doing

nothing W you C W you Betha

for if the mighty Works which were done in you had been done in Tyron siden they would have repented long ago in sack off the Nations but I say to you it will be more tolerable for tyrant sign in the day of judgment than

for and you capernium you know we're we're there around the Sea of Galilee we're in the Galilean Ministry and you capernium who are exalted to Heaven well of course they're exalted to Heaven absolutely exalted to Heaven brothers and sisters because the kingdom of heaven has been brought to

them they have seen the moral quality of life that the Kingdom of Heaven Embraces is is characterized by they've seen the mighty healing work that is what the kingdom of heaven will be like when it

comes you who are exalted to heaven have taken place in their midst will be brought down to hell for the mighty Works which were done in you had been done in Sodom it would have remained until this day

but I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of s in the day of judgment than for you and in these in chapter 11 excuse me in chapter 11 Jesus is taking to task the public in general the people and the cities where he's done his

work when we come to chapter 12 it's the Pharisees the religious leaders that he takes to test

so there there's a certain amount of Developmental uh symmetry here a certain amount of Developmental uh uh themes here uh you have the public in chapter 11 you have the religious leaders in chapter 12 and in between of course is going to be that that that center point of Matthew's gospel so to the Pharisees Brut of vipers and just stop there that's almost Matthew's expression he uses it three times Luke uses it once no times in in in Mark or John bru vipers so where are they born from they're not born from above they're serpent seed brood of vipers how can you being evil speak good things and of course they had been disparaging they' had been disparaging the power of God at work in Jesus to heal the sick to cleanse the lepers to raise the they've been disparaging this for for whatever ulterior re reasons they have out of the abundance of the heart the mouth

speaks for I say to you that for Every Idle Word men may speak they will give account in the day of judgment so now he's giving the Pharisees the same

warnings many respects they're more culpable and then he goes on to say them to again to the Pharisees the men of Nineveh will rise up in the Judgment for this generation and it because they repented the preaching of Jonah and indeed of greater than Jonah's here and you know the Lord's very tangential in the way he does this he doesn't say and now I'm here they've got to come to the conclusion that this one in their midst is greater than

Jonah and begin to submit to him unless they repent and submit they're dead the queen of the South will rise up in the Judgment with his generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the Earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and indeed a greater than Solomon is here who is this greater than

Solomon and in the middle of that brothers and sisters where he is now taking Israel to task both the people who are unresponsive and the religious leaders who ought to have been Leading the People and have left them as sheep without Shepherds their unres in the middle of this is where he has this lovely prayer I can't tell you how many years I read this I thought what on Earth does this have to do with the tiate against the people and the tiate against the Pharisees then I realized this is exactly the heart of Matthew's ideas this is the heart of his gospel at that time Jesus answered and said I thank you Father Lord of Heaven and Earth you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent whether it's the people sitting in the marketplace whether it's the the the religious leaders who esteemed themselves wise and prudent these things are hidden from them and you have revealed them to babes well if God has revealed them to babes then God has been actively involved in the birthing process in the Born Again processed and I think that's something for us to realize we don't come to the truth on our own we don't come to the truth of the gospel and of Salvation just because somebody happen to be in the right place in the right time and tell us about it we don't come to the truth just because we're born into a Christadelphian

family we don't come to the truth because we're so all fire smart that we can sit down and read the Bible and come to All the Right conclusions for ourselves we come to the TRU the truth because God reveals these things

to unless

we are converted and become as little children we shall not enter the kingom of heav but God is at work in these things even so father for so it seemed good in your sight spiritual babes are born from

above and I just intimated that discourses follow MYRY portions and they're related the the Min the discourse portion that follows this is the parable portion in Matthew uh 13 and Jesus begins speaking in Parables but very quickly this becomes a disciple

situation he leaves the multitude he goes into the house but even then before that the disciples came and said to him why do you speak to them in

Parables he answered and said to them because they esteemed themselves wise and prudent and these things are hidden from them you're babes it's been given to you you you see how that that language is equate here because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to them it's not been given it's been hidden from

them the disciples themselves are the spiritual babes and if we would be a disciple God help us and bless us that we might be spiritual babes as so division three is Israel's tragic response we'll get maybe into a bit of division four and then I'll just simply have to tell you division five brings all of these themes together in a most remarkable way especially in the temple Ministry of Jesus in Matthews 2122 23 so Israel's tragic response in division three we come to division four all right Israel who is this man in your midst who is

Jesus and while that is being emphasized by Matthew he's also beginning to show us the evidence that the Kingdom of Heaven is going to be brought to people people Beyond

Israel to

Gentiles if we don't get to it that's where we're going to meet the syop phenician woman that's where we're going to meet the people east of the of Galilee who glorify the god of

Israel that's where we're going to this is where we're going to meet the

church and we're beginning to get these clear indicators at this point in the in the gospels that the Kingdom of Heaven is going to be brought to people beyond the Jewish people and Gentiles which by the grace of God were like

ourselves we're now between the fourth and fifth bridging

statements and I just I just skim through this fairly quickly for lack of time but he comes to his own country to Nazareth how do they esteem him what how do they view this Jesus is this not The Carpenter's

son and the next

chapter Herod the tetrach he's a report of Jesus so we go from the from the Common People the peasants in the village to the to the rulers on the throne here the tetar this is John the Baptist he's risen from the

dead the disciples themselves have gone through a learning process brother they're going through a growing process and it it's almost musing in a way this sequence of statements in Matthew 14 after the feeding of 5,000 when they go off across the sea they're rowing against the waves and Jesus comes to them having been up in the mountain praying he comes to them in the Fourth Watch of the night walking on the sea and and the the the the words the phrasing that Matthew uses almost it encapsulates what they've been going through and and how they are trying to come to grips with this fundamental question itself the first thing they do when they see him on the SE it's a ghost you know ludicrous

be of good cheer he saysit is

I Peter said to himl if it is

you and all of this is going to culminate in the wonderful moment where the disciples will have matured to the point that they begin to know who this wonderful man is that is in their midst they've followed him they've put their hope in him they've called him Lord and they're beginning to realize the full implications of what all of that

means Peter venturing to go walk to Jesus on the sea afraid he begins to sink he cried out words that need to be Cried Out Lord save me and immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said oh you a FAL Faith why did you doubt so that they've been struggling they've been struggling with the the issues of his identity and and and what's transpiring in their midst

and when they got into the boat the wind ceased then those who were in The Boat came and worshiped saying truly you are the Son of God so you see how their how their thinking progresses very rapidly in this in this episode from it is a ghost to truly he the Son of God they are coming to terms

gradually by just being with Jesus being close to Jesus here hearing him seeing him observing him they are coming to the right conclusion as to who this wonderful man is that has been sent into their

midst just skip 15 we may not have time to come back to it

anyway but this is Ministry

4 they come now to the region of Caesar a philippon up in the

north and Jesus brings this question of his identity to a head he asked his disciples saying who do men say that I the son of man am well some are saying John the Baptist we saw that with Herod Elijah Jeremiah one of the prophets so they obviously are recognizing Jesus as as as

significant and he said to them but who do you say that I

am Simon Peter answered and said you are the Christ the son of the Living God and in words that Echo the prayer of Jesus back at the center point of Matthew's gospel Jesus answered and said to him blessed are you Simon bar Jonah for flesh and blood is not revealed this to you but my father who is in

heaven we see how through this fourth Ministry portion the identity of Jesus is being being wrestled with and worked out in

Israel and all of this brothers and sisters of course has the final stamp of authority and stamp of approval given to it in the Transfiguration which is Ministry 4 chapter

17 after six days Jesus Took Peter J uh James and John his brother LED them up on a high M high mountain by themselves and he was transfigured before them his face Shone like the sun now let me just stop there for a second

Matthew uses words to connect things not chapters and verses he uses words that idea of the face shining like the sun Echo something we saw at the end or would have seen had we looked at it the end of The Parables you know the righteous Matthew says the end of chapter 13 shall Shine Like the Sun in the Kingdom of their father

and so you know Matthew is the only the only gospel writer to describe the Transfiguration this way and he uses this this language this description twice once for the disciples who are his people is

righteous and then of course in the Transfiguration he shows what it's all like his face Shone like the sun his clothes became as white as the light and we've told just before this of course that this is a kingdom vision

while he was still speaking Behold a bright Cloud overshadowed them and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud saying and we have the final stamp of approval on the identity of Jesus this is my beloved

Son in whom I am well pleased hear

him and why hear him because he has the words of life he has the words that can transform us us if we'll listen and take them to ourselves hear

him well I'm looking at the time brothers and sisters and my box says 8:30 um I've already alluded to the fact that in this same Ministry portion we have not only the question of Jesus identity in Israel being worked out but we have the first clear indications that the Kingdom of Heaven is going to go not just or come not just to the Jewish people those who are responsive but will go beyond them to the

Gentiles and as I say when we come to the last division when the Galilean Ministry is over when all of these themes that Matthew develops have been presented to us he now comes to Jerusalem and all of these themes will be brought to bear in especially in the

temple the last week

before they in their obstinance put them to death um I wish we had time to go into that The Parables that Jesus The Parables that Jesus speaks in the temple at the last week Matthew records three and they are not randomly recorded they are deliberately linked I believe with what we've been seeing in these previous four divisions you have the parable of the two sons

you have the parable of the wicked husbandman and you have the parable of the wedding feast and had we time we could have looked at each of those Parables we know them well it's not hard to to understand what those parables are saying but what we might easily Miss is if all of those Parables that Matthew has drawn together there have Echo after Echo after echo of the themes that he's been developing the kingdom having come to Israel the ident of Jesus the response of Israel the tragedy of their response the fact that the kingdom will go to others there'll be other there'll be other Vine dressers who will get the vineyard there will be tax collectors and harlots that go into the kingdom of God before them there will be there will be others invited to the wedding

Feast Beyond Israel so we've got to leave it there we've got to leave it there