Structure of the book of Matthew

Transcript

All right, a year ago, I mean, first of all, January is a great time to be talking about Matthew because we're doing that in our daily readings. A year ago this time, we did look at Matthew's gospel in terms of the original structure that Matthew built his gospel around, and we looked at some of the themes that he develops within that structure. I want to get back to the structure again this evening and look at how he uses verbal connections in words and phrases and such like to give continuity to his gospel. So we'll get right into it. Some background points. You know, the daily readings that we do in Matthew's gospel follow, of course, a chapter breakdown that was not Matthew's original design in any way. Matthew's original structure, containing exactly the same material in the same order as we have it today, bears no relationship to the chapter and verse divisions that have been imposed on it since, and I think that's one of the things for us to realize. When we're doing our daily readings, we may start right in the middle of something. Even though it's the beginning of a chapter, we might start right in the middle of something and end in the middle of something or something else. The Bible wasn't divided into chapters until the 13th century, about the 1220s approximately. The Old Testament chapters were not divided into verses for another couple of centuries until the 15th century. The New Testament chapters were not divided into verses until the 16th century. And the first English Bible to be divided into both chapters and verses was the Geneva Bible of 1560. So it's been less than 500 years that we've had Bibles divided into chapters and verses the way we are accustomed to them today. When Matthew wrote, therefore, he didn't have chapters and verses to go by or to employ. When he wrote his gospel in the first century, structure and continuity were provided by the strategic use of words and phrases and the placement of passages, and not at all by numbered chapters and verses. So today's chapter and verses are very helpful to us. We can hardly live without them. As we go through this evening, we'll constantly be referring to this chapter of Matthew and that verse and so on. And yet, they hide Matthew's original structure, so much so that we can miss it. And Matthew's original structure has not only themes that are being developed, but an impressive use of verbal connections that we're going to deal with tonight, God willing. And the use of symmetry, placing passages at strategic points against each other within his structure, and they all carry the gospel message. So we need to get back and look at the structure again, if you don't mind, as a basis for seeing how Matthew then uses words and phrases to carry his message forward. Matthew's gospel has a symmetrical structure to it, made up of seven major parts. It has an introduction, which basically sets the stage for everything that's to come. And the more I look at this, brothers and sisters, the more I'm convinced of that. The curious stories of the visit of the wise men, the slaughter of the babies at Bethlehem, the flight to Egypt, the return to Galilee, he will be called a Nazarene. These are unique stories of the introduction of Matthew's gospel. They're setting the stage for things to come. And when we begin to see them that way, they take on a tremendous amount of meaning for us. They're not just arbitrary stories stuck at the beginning of his gospel. The climax is the outcome. It's everything really that the introduction is going to be pointing forward to. And between now and next week, we'll try to see a bit more of that. In between, the five divisions exactly cover the public ministry of Jesus, beginning from the moment he comes into Galilee when John is put into prison. And the first four divisions are all in Galilee. The fifth division will bring him to Jerusalem. And ultimately, the focus of the fifth division is going to be his ministry in the temple. And then when he leaves the temple out to the Mount of Olives for the Olivet Discourse and the public ministry of Jesus is over, his betrayal, his arrests, trials, and so forth, the crucifixion and so on, they are now going to be the outcome and yet the marvel of our salvation. So anyway, that's the basic structure. Now, how do we get onto this? And how do we figure out that Matthew's gospel has this structure? And the key, and it was a huge help to me, was to come across the fact that Matthew uses six bridging statements that exactly connect these divisions together. And when we talk about verbal structure this evening, the bridging statements have a verbal structure that is very systematic, and we will look at that. But they are the key to rediscovering, if you will, the structure of Matthew's gospel. The first bridging statement is in Matthew 4 verse 12, and I'll just put these on the screen for you. And they really define the boundaries for everything else in his gospel. Now, that might seem a bit arbitrary. I think once we review the bridging statements again, we'll see it's not at all arbitrary. And the thing that just constantly then comes into place, once we have these bridging statements in these seven major parts, is that the verbal kinds of things that Matthew uses, passages and words and phrases that we've long recognized as, you know, very characteristic of Matthew, many times will take on a new strategic position within this framework and begin to realize those aren't just happenstance statements. They are designed to carry the structure and the continuity of Matthew's gospel. All right, so once we have the bridging statements, we can immediately identify the parts that make up all the other divisions. And like I say, this isn't arbitrary. We begin to see, as we get used to this, that these things make a lot of sense. So the introduction of Matthew's gospel is from the opening words to verse 11 of chapter 4, which is the end of Jesus' temptations. Everything there is preparing for his public ministry and the ultimate outcome. We have the first bridging statement at Matthew 4, verse 12, and then the next division, which runs to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Right after that, you get the next bridging statement and we come to the next division of Matthew's gospel and so on. I'm going to belabor this because we've got a lot of things we want to look at. But that right there, to my mind, is the fundamental structure, the original structure of Matthew's gospel, with chapter and verse designations sort of imposed on it now. All right, to look at the bridging statements, they have a verbal structure of their own. And each bridging statement that Matthew uses, the six statements that connect the major parts, each are made up of two phrases. And as soon as I put them up here, you'll see how systematically worded these statements are. The first phrase brings closure to what has gone before. So that first bridging statement, Matthew 4, verse 12, brings closure to the introduction of Matthew's gospel. And the second phrase will introduce what's coming next. So for example, these are the closing phrases, if you will, of each bridging statement. Now when Jesus heard, it happens to be when he heard that John was cast into prison. The next one, so it was when Jesus ended these sayings. The next one, now it came to pass when Jesus finished commanding. The next one, now it came to pass when Jesus finished these parables. The next one, now it came to pass when Jesus finished these sayings. And the last one, Now it came to pass when Jesus finished all these sayings, so it's bringing closer to what has just gone before. And the second phrase of the bridging statement is going to introduce what's coming next. So when he had heard that John had been cast into prison, he departed into Galilee. That's the essence of Matthew 4 verse 12. The next bridging statement, he'd finished these sayings, he came down from the mountains, great multitude follow. The next one he finished commanding the 12, he departed from there to teach and preach in their cities. Finished the parables, he departed from there to his own country. Finished the next sayings, he departed from there to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And finally, after the last sayings, he said to his disciples, the son of man will be delivered up to be crucified. And you know, if we would ever mark these into our Bibles, brothers and sisters, in Matthew's gospel, they would be a starting point, I think, for seeing some structure and continuity in terms of our daily readings. I mean, we read Matthew 4 on what, the second or third of January, and we don't read Matthew 7 for a few more days and Matthew 11 a few more days. And so it's easy for us to just never see these connecting points. And like I say, you know, I got some help in identifying five of these six statements, and the sixth one kind of showed up where it belonged. And that's been a huge help to me in terms of recognizing how Matthew designed his gospel and what the various parts are about. All right, so back here to our basic structure and refining it just a little bit more. It turns out that each of the five divisions that exactly cover the public ministry of Jesus are divided into two identical parts, all of them. They have a ministry portion, followed by a discourse portion, and we'll elaborate on that in a moment. The second one starts with a ministry portion and ends with a discourse portion. The third division starts with a ministry portion and ends with a discourse portion. The fourth starts with a ministry portion, ends with a discourse. The fifth starts with a ministry portion, ends with a discourse. Very systematic. In fact, I've had to smile a few times. Matthew's so systematic, he must have been a tax collector or something. He really had things well organized. It's very well laid out. Recognizing that just helps with the readings, because when we're doing our daily readings, you just look at division one up there on the left under the introduction. You're going from ministry to discourse, and then to ministry and then discourse, ministry and discourse. We're going back and forth in these major parts of Matthew's gospel, and once we begin to see, that's what he's doing, the message begins to come to life on the page a bit more for us, I think. So each division includes a ministry portion, followed by a discourse portion. Now, what do we mean by that? All right. So the ministry portion, we'll just look at some here at the top of the screen. The ministry portions of Matthew's gospel are what we create our Sunday lessons out of. That's the stories we tell the kids. Tell me the stories of Jesus I'd love to hear. That's what the ministry portions are. So you have the call of disciples. You have Jesus interacting with the crowds, the crowds following him. You have him coming into the cities. You have him in the synagogue. You have him at the end in the temple. And these are the public, very public ministry portions of his ministry. The miracles are all contained in the ministry portions of Matthew's gospel. If you're reading a miracle, you're in a ministry portion of Matthew's gospel. Okay, guaranteed. So that's the healing of the leper, the walking on the sea, the raising of the epileptic boy, and so forth. These are all part of the ministry portions of Matthew's gospel. The confrontations that Jesus has with the religious leaders, whether it is after the call of Matthew, and then he goes to eat with the tax collectors and the sinners, and they're there sniping at him, saying to the disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Or over on the right-hand side there, when they challenge him in the grain fields, and your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day. These confrontations, they're all in the ministry sections of Matthew's gospel. So these kinds of things make up the ministry portions. And within those, you will always have ad hoc teachings of Jesus, the teachings that spin out from whatever events are going on. So for example, you know, at the beginning of chapter 9, we read that today, didn't we? At the beginning of chapter 9, you have the palsied man, or the paralyzed man who's let down through the roof. And that's a great miracle, it's public, it's part of the ministry portion, it's part of the second ministry portion of Matthew's gospel. And there's an ad hoc teaching that comes out of that, because in the process, Jesus will say to them that you may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. He says to the sick of the palsy, rise, take up your bed, go to your house. So he's using those situations to teach, which immediately makes him a good teacher, doesn't it? Because when teachers can take whatever is presented to them, whatever is suddenly in front of them, and turn that into a teaching moment, that's an exquisitely good teacher. And Jesus is that way. So time and time again, these events that make up the ministry portions are coupled with marvelous ad hoc teachings. Then discourse follows. And the discourses are also exquisitely, you know, designed in a sense. They always follow the ministry that precedes them. So when we look at the discourses of Jesus, and we begin to see the instruction, now I'm in a discourse, all right? I'm listening to Jesus teach a structured teaching. How does that relate to what's gone before? Because again, when he does the discourses, and let's just look at these. When he does the discourses, they all basically have a same kind of format. They are structured teaching. They are invariably with his disciples, and they are invariably for his disciples. So when we're into these discourse sections, it really comes down to us, it's incumbent upon us, I think, to say, what does this have to do with me? What does this mean to me? Because he's teaching disciples. And the first, of course, classic example of that is the Sermon on the Mount, okay? That's the first discourse of Matthew's gospel and the teachings. They're all about, you know, the kingdom life, about how we're to live. You know, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those that mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. So it's structured teaching. Whether some of the crowds are occasionally privy to this, that's far less often than when they are. They're not commonly privy to the discourses, although they're not totally excluded at times. But ultimately, the discourses of Jesus, the five of them, really have something to say for us as disciples. So each division includes ministry followed by discourse. And every discourse ends at a bridging statement. And so let's remember, we're talking also about verbal connections tonight, so we want to just look a little bit more at this. Verbal cues tell us where each discourse begins, all right? Each discourse ends at a bridging statement. And again, you can see immediately the verbal cue. And so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings, when Jesus finished commanding his twelve disciples, when Jesus had finished these parables, when Jesus had finished these sayings, when Jesus had finished all these sayings. So every discourse ends at the bridging statement like that. And when we spot those and say, ah, a discourse has just ended, let me go back and see where the discourse began. And there are verbal cues. The first one, discourse, as we said, sermon on the mount. Then he opened his mouth and taught them saying. And it ends when Jesus had ended these sayings. Second discourse begins. Then these twelve, Jesus sent out and commanded them saying. It ends. Now it came to pass when Jesus finished commanding his twelve disciples. Pretty obvious, isn't it? The third one, then he spoke many things to them in parables saying. And it ends when Jesus finished these parables. You can see how the structure just works along very nicely. The verbal cues tell us that we're starting and ending a discourse. And the last two, assuredly I say to you, and Jesus answered and said to them. So we can begin to see the beginning and ending of these courses. And again, you know, if we were to mark these in the margin of our Bible, when we're doing the daily readings, we say, all right, Jesus is into a discourse now. And it's relevant to what's just gone before in the ministry portion. And it's relevant for me as a disciple. It's relevant for me because he is addressing these first and foremost to his disciples, whoever else might be privy to the things that he's saying. Right now, there are the verbal connections, brothers and sisters, that pin down the bridging statements for us, allow us to identify where the discourses are, and really begin to see the dividing markers in all of Matthew's gospel. Now what I'd like to do for the rest of the time we've got is to take a look at how Matthew then uses additional verbal cues to give continuity to this wonderful gospel message that he's developing. And we can see to a certain extent that the dynamics of how Matthew's gospel is developing. So what I'd like to do just across the top there, I've put the basic structure again, just as a sort of reference line. Introduction, first bridging statement, ministry one, division one, second bridging statement, right across to division five, bridging statement six, and the climax on the right. What I'd like to do is have that as a kind of reference line so that as we look at passages and see Matthew's use of verbals, you know, words and phrases that we've long considered, we've long recognized them, and sometimes seen them as very similar. See how they are strategically placed now within this framework and give it its continuity. So to begin with, one that we know very well, you know, when John the Baptist's ministry begins in Matthew chapter three, we're still in the introduction. The introduction is going to go until the end of Jesus' temptations in Matthew four, verse 11. So we're still in the introduction, and we're told in those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then we notice that same day reading, because I think what we do, we read Matthew one and two, and then we read Matthew three and four. So on the second of January, we have the same reading. We have the chapter four as a reading, and we read the same thing. Jesus now picks up the exact same language that John had used. Now when Jesus heard that John had been put into prison, he departed to Galilee, and then dot, dot, dot. From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So what John is preparing a way for, Jesus is now bringing to Israel, and particularly at this point to Galilee, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. All right, now we're going to, let's see, today is the seventh, and so we did nine and ten today, didn't we? We did nine and ten today, and we did chapter nine today. Tomorrow's chapter ten. We'll see this tomorrow. When he selects the twelve apostles to then go out and to multiply the kingdom message farther and faster and wider than he would be able to do as a solitary person, he sends them out with the same message as you go preach saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Okay, we see, we should see that in tomorrow's reading. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons, freely you have received, freely give, and we begin to realize, look at where our arrow lines are pointed to up at the top. After John's introductory teaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, Jesus and the disciples now pick up on that, and Jesus is in ministry one as he uses that phrasing, and then in discourse two, when he commissions the apostles to go out, he's using the same phrasing. So you see up at the top there that division one and division two both have relevance to this concept of the kingdom of heaven being at hand, and it turns out very much that that's the theme that Matthew wants us to see. It's the first theme that Matthew wants us to see about the ministry of Jesus. It's a theme that characterizes divisions one and two of Matthew's gospel, and this is further reinforced by other phrases and words and even passages that indicate to us when we're looking at the ministry of Jesus and Matthew's gospel, the first two divisions which take us from basically in chapter four, middle of chapter four, through to the end of chapter nine and into chapter ten, the thing for us to look at and see is how is the kingdom of heaven at hand right now, because that's what Matthew wants us to see. And ministry two picks up where ministry one leaves off, suggesting again that the two divisions go together. Just notice this. The end of ministry one, which is a very short portion, and we come to discourse one, which is the long sermon on the mount. We have this verbal structure. Seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him. Now at the end of the sermon on the mount, when that discourse is over, notice the phrasing. When he had come down from the mountains, great multitudes followed him. The beginning of ministry two, multitudes up in a mountain, down from a mountain, multitudes. It's Matthew's strategy through and through, brothers and sisters. It's the way he verbally connects things as his ministry begins to unfold. The two passages exactly straddle the sermon on the mount, exactly straddle the sermon on the mount. We might not pick up on that. Certainly, I might not pick up on that if we didn't have this framework, this structural framework that laid out at the top as a guideline. I know we're going to hold on. Matthew is really putting things at strategic points in his development of the gospel story. We'd probably guess that anyway, but now we can see where those points are. So the two passages exactly straddle discourse one, and again suggest that division two is to be understood as a continuation of division one. You know heaven was at hand then, it's still at hand now. Then we notice something else, and I'm sure we've seen this. If we've been reading the daily readings for 50 years, then we've read this a hundred times. We've seen that there are two passages in Matthew four and Matthew nine that are exactly the same, but virtually verbatim. Well, they're strategically placed. Okay, at the end, summing up ministry one, Matthew tells us Jesus went 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. That's a wonderful synopsis of how the kingdom came. Jesus teaching, preaching the gospel of healing. That's how the kingdom of heaven is, a picture of the kingdom to come, and he's bringing it then to Israel. But then notice how ministry two is summarized near the end of chapter nine, almost at the end of chapter nine. 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 among people. It's almost verbatim, again indicating to us that division one and division two of Matthew's gospel have a common theme. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. And Jesus does bring it, doesn't he? He brings the kingdom to us in his preaching, which are the principles of kingdom life. Blessed are the poor in spirit again, and blessed are those that mourn. You know, all of that. Blessed are the peacemakers. You know, all of that. The principles of kingdom life. And in his healing, in chapters eight and nine, which we've just finished reading, are just one miracle after another after another, showing the powers of the kingdom to come. So in his preaching, in his healing, and perhaps best of all in his person, as he brings the very character of God, you know, the personality of God, the words of God, the works of God to men, you know, the kingdom of heaven has come to earth. Along with this, and we'll just, you know, cover what we can tonight, but as I see, it's already eight o'clock, so we'll just get as much of this done as we can. But these verbal connections just keep going. Ministry one begins the call of disciples, and that continues in ministry, too. We know the stories, the Sunday school stories for our kids. Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon Cole Peter and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Then he said to them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. They immediately left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. He called them and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Then we pick it up again in the reading we did today. Jesus passed on from there. He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, follow me. So he rose and followed him. What is happening, I think, brothers and sisters, and it's been helpful to me to see it this way, at least, is that in these first divisions, Jesus is bringing the kingdom of heaven to men, and he is calling men to the kingdom of heaven. Then what people do with the kingdom of heaven, all of that is what Matthew's gospel really is about, because we're going to begin to see how Israel does not react the way, in general, the way disciples do. We're going to see the tragedy of their rejection of Jesus and the kingdom of heaven, and that's going to be coming by the time we get to division three. So it'll be a big shift in the focus of Matthew's gospel. But before we get there, the appointment of 12 apostles at the end of ministry two is getting ready for them to go out and to take the kingdom of heaven to more cities in Galilee and Israel. Again, Matthew's structure is such that the appointment of the 12 complements the call of the disciples at the beginning of ministry one. So here we are. We're at the end of ministry two. Jesus is going to send out 12 apostles now to multiply. He's going to empower them to bring healing powers to the people, and they're going to be empowered to say things, even at this early point, which brings the kingdom near. And they're obviously a select group out of the disciples that have been rallying to him for the first however many months of his ministry. But it begins by saying, Simon, call Peter, Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee, John his brother, et cetera, et cetera. And we go back and we look at the very first calling of disciples, Simon call Peter, Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee, John his brother. This is characteristic Matthew to have this kind of repetition of exact phrasing, really, in this case. And these two, the calling of the first disciples and the appointment of the 12 really kind of bookend the first two ministry portions of Jesus' gospel, of his ministry. Discourse two commissions the expansion of ministry two. Let me just put both of these up here. At the very end of ministry two, when Jesus is still working on his own, disciples are gathering to him. He's about to send out 12 and multiply the effort, so to speak. But at the very end, Jesus is seeing the crowds that come to him, their desperate needs, the neglect that they have been under from the religious leaders of the nation. And ministry two is basically summed up. This is the end of it. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Verbal connections, brothers and sisters. We come to the beginning of discourse two. These 12 Jesus sent out go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Matthew's verbal connections, it's just the way he organizes things and it becomes immediately obvious to us. And to see those at the end of ministry two and the beginning of discourse two helps us to really appreciate the strategic placement of those particular statements. So the discourse, this is a good example of it. The discourse always bears verbal and conceptual relation to the ministry that precedes it. Okay. And again, you get the basic structure kind of in our minds as we're reading Matthew's gospel. Begin to see the verbal connections. We also begin to see that the discourses, what he is going to send his disciples to do now, the 12, bears very much a relationship to what he's already been doing. And that kind of connection between discourse and preceding ministry is very characteristic of Matthew. All right. Ministry three, we get to ministry three. We're getting to the middle now. And Jesus is going to follow up on the work that he commissioned the apostles to do in discourse 12. So as he's sending them out, he's saying to them, when they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the son of man comes. And just remember, what they're being sent to do at this relatively early stage, certainly early in their discipleship, their first fledgling steps as apostles, as they are being sent to bring the kingdom of heaven to people themselves. Tell them the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead. Okay. That's what they're being sent to do. And I like sometimes to just stop and think about that for a minute because those things, the marvelous teachings and the wonderful healings are the kingdom. When the kingdom, you know, it's often struck me, brothers and sisters, if we want to know what the kingdom is going to be like when Jesus comes again, look at what it was like when he came before. Just add immortality to it. Give it, give it perpetuity. You know, it's a marvelous life and the healing of all the human ills, you know, tell them the kingdom of heaven is at hand. You will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the son of man comes. And so then as ministry three begins, it came to pass when Jesus finished commanding his 12, his 12 disciples that he departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities. And that introduces the next ministry portion of Matthew's gospel. But you see the language echo, the cities of Israel preach and teach in their cities. But there's something else in discourse too, as he's getting his apostles and 12 ready to go out, he says to them words that are frightening. When they persecute you, and we begin to realize that the kingdom is not being well received in Israel. So for all of the mercies, you just stop and think about this and it breaks your heart, for all the mercies that Jesus has brought to Galilee and the apostles have multiplied as they've gone out when they persecute you. We've already seen evidence in our reading so far this year, brothers and sisters. There was evidence in it today. There will be more evidence as we go forward of the Pharisees. This man casts out demons by Beelzebub. Show us a sign. Why are you doing that which is not lawful to do? We begin to see that the immense blessings of the kingdom are not being well received. And so as we get to ministry three, there's a huge shift coming in this third division of Matthew's gospel. And suddenly the picture shifts to one of impending judgment on Israel for their failure to respond. And so discourse two, as he's getting the apostles ready to send them out, introduces Israel's accountability to coming judgment. And ministry three, Jesus will personally take that accountability message to the cities of Israel themselves. So he says to his disciples, you go to the cities with the gospel message, with the kingdom message, and they will not receive you. Surely I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. In the day of judgment, very characteristic Matthew phrase, and it is concentrated where it belongs. In the structure of Matthew's gospel, Jesus then goes to the cities as it were, to Chorazin, to Bethsaida, to woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida. And you, Capernaum, you've been exalted to heaven, you'll be brought down to hell. He's blunt with them. He says, I say to you, speaking now to the cities, and just when we're poised at the beginning of ministry three to see Jesus continuing the kingdom message and follow-up in the cities where the apostles have gone, it turns into rebuke because they have not been receptive to the mercies that have been brought to them. I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And a little further on, I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. And one more time, as he addresses the Pharisees, I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. Just a comment on idle words there, brothers and sisters. We can look at that and say, oof, I've got to be careful what I'm saying. I'm going to be held accountable for it never in the day of judgment. Well, we do have to be careful about what we're saying. But if I cursed a cat last night for scratching the upholstery, well, I don't have a cat, so I won't care. But those are not, I think, the kind of idle words that Jesus is talking about. Because the context here is these are words that are very calculated. Rather than being idle in the sense we normally think of it, they are words that are calculated to keep people idle, to keep people from responding. He does his works by Beelzebub, this kind of thing. They're very calculated. And I think at this point, at least in this context where the idle words are being mentioned, Jesus is referring to some things that are very calculated on the part of the Pharisees and designed to undermine any sort of accountability or any sort of response that the people might have to the kingdom. And those who speak them will be giving an account of them in the day of judgment. But the point here is the highlighted red letters. These are the four uses of the expression in the day of judgment in Matthew's gospel. That's it. And they're all concentrated here. He advises his apostles of it that they will be answerable in the day of judgment if they reject the kingdom. And now to the cities and to the Pharisees, Jesus uses the same language again and again. It's concentrated here because now he's warning Israel of their accountability for rejecting him, for refusing him. And wherever the hand of God touches us through the Lord Jesus, there is accountability. And this is what we're turning into now, we're finding now in Matthew's gospel in this middle portion. Another phrase occurs twice in Matthew's gospel, and it's right here. Still in this ministry three portion, still being addressed to the scribes and Pharisees. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation of condemnant. A little further on, the queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation of condemnant. And these are the two uses of the expression in the judgment in Matthew's gospel. So not only is there verbal connection, but there's verbal concentration here of this kind of phrasing where it is now appropriate. So you just step back, the first two divisions have brought the kingdom of heaven to Israel. The third division now is dealing with the warnings of judgment to come, the accountability of judgment for the respond. You just look in the middle there, Matthew 11. He's speaking to the cities. And it's here, for example, that we have the rather graphic picture of children sitting in the marketplaces. So what shall I like in this generation? It's like children sitting in the marketplaces. We've piped you and you haven't danced. We've mourned you and you haven't lamented. What are you doing? It's almost humorous language there that Jesus uses. And you see these picture, a metal image of people sitting around in the marketplace with a glaze on their eyes and drool coming down their chin and their mouth open, gaping, and these wonderful things have been going on. And there's no response. There's no response. And when I look at that, brothers and sisters, I have to say to myself, not just what is the matter with them, what is the matter with me? You know, they're made of the same human stuff as I am. I'm made of the same human stuff as they are. And if they can sit around and be unresponsive to the mercies that Jesus is bringing to them, to the kingdom that he's giving them a wonderful foretaste of, you know, then what's the matter? We've just got to look inside and say, my response has got to be better. And these, the response is so poor that he's now warning them categorically that they've had their opportunity. They've been shown the mercies of God, and they'll be accountable. Now, we're into ministry three, we're right at the middle of our reference line at the top, and we've come to the center point of Matthew's gospel. And this to my mind, let's see how our time is. Oh, it's flying by. We'll quit on time. Even if we don't finish, we'll quit on time. This to my mind, brothers and sisters, is just a wonderful revelation, if you will, because at the middle of the middle ministry portion, the middle of ministry three, there is a passage in the end of Matthew 11 that when we do our daily readings year after year after year, and we come to that, we'll come to it in a couple of days, it just seems totally out of place with everything else. And it isn't out of place at all. Once we begin to see how the ministry of Jesus is developing and what's going on, all of a sudden, this center point, this pivotal point of Matthew's ministry, is absolutely magnificent. Because, again, at the expense of just repeating myself, in the first two divisions, the kingdom has come to Israel with all of its blessings. In the third division now, we have got Israel's response, which is just wanting, it's tragic, it's inadequate. So at this point, Jesus has some disciples that have gathered to him and are becoming loyal to him, and a nation at a larger scale that is not responding at all. And this center point of Matthew's gospel makes sense of everything as different and almost disconnected as it seems when we're doing our readings. From everything around it, it is really the center point and explains everything. It is the pivotal point of Matthew's gospel ministry of Jesus. 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 and have revealed them to babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. So while on the one hand, there are the disciples that are struggling to learn what Jesus is teaching and to live the new life that he's bringing to them, and to follow him and to love him and to stay with him. And on the other hand, you've got the rest of the nation and the Pharisees that are just tragically unresponsive. And Jesus said, I know why that's happening. No one comes to me except my Father draws him. And that's what I think what's happening here. I drew that from John's gospel as you will recognize. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You've hidden these things from the wise and prudent. So you've got those who esteem themselves wise and prudent, and they're blind as bats. And you've got the babes that are the simple, poor in spirit, pure in heart, peacemakers longing after righteousness. You've got these simple folk, and God's revealed it to them. He's revealed the kingdom and Jesus to these individuals. They are the babes. And right at the center of all of this developing ministry of Jesus, this explains it all. And that's why I think Matthew's put it here, right at the center of the center. And it goes on to say, all things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and I might add, and those to whom the Father will reveal him, because that's Matthew 16. No, does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him? So the Father is very much involved in the response of the people. They're accountable. We've just seen that. They're accountable. So we're responsible for our response. But nevertheless, the Father has opened the eyes of some, and let the others remain closed. And I just have to comment in passing here on this last statement, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. This is almost a subtle verbal connection in Matthew's Gospel. At the beginning of the Gospel, he is born to be called Emmanuel, God with us. At the end of the Gospel, the Emmanuel name will be perpetuated. And right here in the middle, those who will call him Emmanuel are those to whom the Son wills to reveal the Father. And we see the Father revealed in the Son, and we then, brothers and sisters, by the grace of God, are entitled to call him Emmanuel, because we see that. All right. Beginning, end, center point, Matthew Symmetry. The one to whom the Son wills to reveal him, they shall call his name Emmanuel. All right. Lots of connections, lots of connections. And then beyond that, you have the very end of the center point, this wonderful invitation that Jesus makes to anyone to be the children sitting in the marketplaces still, to be the Pharisees still. If they would, if we will, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly and hard, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Those wonderful words from Matthew 11, verse 25 to 30, are the center of the center. They are the pivotal point of Matthew's Gospel, and they explain everything. And explaining everything like time is running out, we're at 8.27. Let me just do one more point here. Indicating, brothers and sisters, how discourse sections follow the ministry sections. Discourse three, which we know as the parables, you know, the parable of the sower, the wheat and the tares, you know, the mustard seed and the leaven and, you know, all of that, the pearl of great price. Those parables turn out fundamentally to relate to Israel's response to the Kingdom message. The discourses, the discourses fundamentally key off the ministry portions that precede them. That's a good key for understanding the parables of Matthew 13. We've just seen the prayer that Jesus offered, you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. And then we get into the parables, and his disciples came and said to him, why do you speak to them in parables? He answered and said to them, because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it has not been given. And you know immediately the conceptual relationship here. You are the babes to whom the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven are being revealed, and they are the wise and prudent from whom these things are being hidden. It's not been given to them to know. What in God's wisdom and how that works, brothers and sisters, I don't know the full answer to that, because God very much does give us by his grace the opportunity, the ability to see what is, you know, the Kingdom and the way of salvation, and others not. And yet at the end of the day, we're responsible for the decisions we make. It's just part of the wonderful dynamic that exists in then it existed, then it exists for us now. God is gracious to us. He is reaching out to affect our lives, to open our eyes, and yet we are responsible for opening our eyes and for responding. Well, all right, our time is gone.

Transcript

Alright, so what I want to do this evening is share some things that have been really helpful for me in terms of Matthew's use of symmetry within the structure of his gospel. And we'll start out again as we did last week, and a year ago in fact, looking at the basic of Matthew's gospel, which we can discover by finding the six bridging statements that are there on the screen, that divides it into the seven parts. So we have an introduction that sets the stage for Matthew's gospel, and then we have a bridging statement that leads us into the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. And the five divisions beneath there exactly cover the public ministry of Jesus from the time he sets foot in Galilee at Matthew 4 verse 12 until the time he says the last word to his disciples in Discourse 5 at the end of Chapter 25. Then we have the bridging statement and the climax. So now that's the huge structure that has been extremely helpful to me in beginning to see how Matthew has organized his gospel. And when we look at Matthew's gospel and something seems to stand alone, it doesn't. It's one of the things that's impressed itself on me. For example, the visit of the wise men. Only Matthew mentions that, he only mentions it in Chapter 2. It seems to stand alone. Herod's destruction of the boy babies of Bethlehem and the flight into Egypt, the coming out of Egypt again and the turning aside to Galilee. He will be called a Nazarene. All of these things seem to stand alone. And when we study them, we tend to tackle them one at a time and by themselves to look for their meaning. But the things combined in their meaning will set the stage for everything that's to come. And oftentimes they will have, if they're in the introduction, they'll have their counterpart in the outcome. So anything that's unique fits into a larger picture. And Matthew will interpret Matthew. And one of the ways that he does this, a significant way in which he does this is to use symmetry. What occurs in one place may even seem to be unique and stand alone, is going to have some kind of a reflection elsewhere. And sometimes we can see that with verbal connections or just simply the placement of symmetry and the similarity of ideas. So for example, there are all these things we just alluded to in the introduction. We're going to find them setting the stage for the rest of the gospel and having counterparts in the climax. They don't just stand alone. We'll find things in Matthew's first discourse of Jesus that have wonderful counterparts in Discourse 5, the first and last discourses. There are things in Ministry 2 that will have counterparts in Ministry 4, and they augment each other. They complement each other. Ministry 3, for example, will have its own symmetrical structure. And right at the center of that, which will be effectively the center of the center of Matthew's gospel, is probably the most wonderful pivotal point of Matthew's gospel we can imagine. Everything turns on that. Just for reference, it's the last six verses of Matthew 11. That's the center, and everything turns on them. In addition to all of that, there are symmetries to be found by just looking at the five discourses and some of the details associated with them. We might miss that because they're distributed all the way across Matthew's gospel practically, and to see that they have some symmetrical details could be easily missed. And they were easily missed by me. You know, the thing that is, though, that the structure begins to have us looking for these things, and sure enough, Matthew seems to be using them to very, very good effect. I want to start, brothers and sisters, by looking at symmetries between the introduction and the climax of Matthew's gospel, and to show that the things don't just stand alone. That what we see in Matthew's gospel, what he's basically doing with all those stories, the visit of the wise men and all the others, what he's doing with all those stories is setting the stage for things to come. And you step back and you begin to realize that what God has done is he has guided all of these events that surround the birth and infancy of Jesus to be portents, to point forward to everything that's going to develop in his ministry and the outcome of his ministry. And it begins to make sense that Matthew has chosen those for his introduction because it really does, they really do set the stage. So I just want to look at several examples of these, and the way they've certainly been helpful to me. Matthew begins his gospel with this, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Matthew 1, verse 1, the first words. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, totally distinctive and unique. But you've perhaps noticed that this itself is an echo of what we read in Genesis 5. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ plays off against the book of the genealogy of Adam. And you go on down through the line, Adam lived 130 years, begot a son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth. After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were 800 years, and he had sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died. Well, of course, Adam had no human ancestors. So his genealogy, and we tend to think of genealogy as our ancestors, but his genealogy is his offspring, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, and whoever comes after, and he dies and they die. So the book of the genealogy of Adam is a book of death. The genealogy of Jesus Christ, and perhaps this is why Matthew has phrased it this way, is not just his ancestors, David and Abraham and so forth. The genealogy of Jesus Christ is his offspring, too, and they will live. And all of our thoughts, I think, can easily reflect on the last part of Isaiah 53, where the suffering servant, he shall seed his seed, he shall prolong, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He has a seed, and that seed is his offspring. So Jesus Christ, the genealogy of Jesus Christ, is about his offspring as well, and they will live. So if the book of the genealogy of Adam, brothers and sisters, is a book of death, it strikes me that what Matthew is telling us is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ is going to be a book of life. He's going to give new life to Adam's children. And in any kind of Bible symmetry, and we're probably most familiar with that in the Psalms. There are a number of Psalms with a symmetrical structure, and that seems to be a characteristic of Hebrew literature. I'm no expert in it, but symmetry certainly seems to play a big role. Wherever we have that, it's always worth looking at the first words and the last words, or the first ideas and the last ideas. And this really pays dividends in Matthew's gospel. So we have the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ as the first words. The last words are, and Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And, oh, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. They're the offspring of Jesus. Disciples of all nations are the offspring, the spiritual offspring of Jesus Christ, and they do all things, they observe all things that he commands them. It's interesting then in this regard, if his disciples, and coming right down to us, are the offspring or the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the first event that Matthew records in the ministry of Jesus is the call of Peter, Andrew, James, and John, when we get into the ministry one portion of his gospel. Those men are the beginning of the generation of Jesus Christ, and it's going to extend down to the end of the age, ultimately, all right? So the disciples of all nations are the genealogy of Jesus Christ, and we at this time in history, this is the thing that just excites me then about Matthew's gospel, is that it ends almost in an open-ended way. We at this time in history are a continuation of the generation of Jesus Christ. We're here because he has generated new life in us. We're the extension of Matthew 28 here as we approach the end of the age. So wonderful things to think about as far as the whole purpose of Matthew's writing. All right, we'll pick something else out at the beginning in the introduction. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows, and we have Matthew 1, beginning at verse 18. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. After his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child. So all this was done, of course, in between the angel appearing to Joseph, don't be afraid to take to Mary her wife, and so on. So all this was done, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son. They shall call his name Immanuel, which is translated, God with us. So in this divine begettal process, brothers and sisters, we see the language, birth, mother, child, Holy Spirit. And we've just noticed in the climax of the climax, a parallel of the words, baptizing Father, Son, Holy Spirit. There is a reflection of the wording. And one of the things that we looked at in some detail last week for the continuation of Matthew's gospel, he uses a continuity of wording. So a reflection here, birth, mother, child, Holy Spirit, baptizing Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The languages and the concept have parallels. And the parallel is, the main parallel is that our new birth is patterned after the birth of Jesus Christ. The Father, through the Holy Spirit, operating on Mary, brings a child to wondrous birth. Now brothers and sisters, the Father, through the Holy Spirit working in His Son, is bringing us to new life and to baptism. So baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is the outcome of the heavenly process that brings us to new birth, just as the operation of the Father with the Holy Spirit brought His Son to new birth. So there are parallels here. They shall call His name Immanuel, and I'm just going to run through some of these things that seem unique in Matthew's introduction. We just read this, so all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by And we need to stop and reflect on this. They shall call His name Immanuel. Immanuel is not intrinsic deity that Jesus is born with. He isn't Immanuel just simply by the fact of His birth. All right. Immanuel is a role that Jesus is to fulfill, and He has divinely begotten to fulfill this role. They shall call His name Immanuel. It isn't that He is Immanuel yet. They shall call His name Immanuel. It's setting the stage for everything to come. And the more we can see that, I think, in the things of Matthew's introduction, the more they'll really take on wonderful meaning for us, and we'll be looking for things as we read the rest of his gospel. The rest of Matthew's gospel is going to show us how this is fulfilled. Enter Matthew's use of symmetry. And this is one of the wonderful places where symmetry is of terrific help to us. Here's the introduction. Here's the midpoint, the structural center of Matthew's gospel. And let's just read it, and then we'll start making connections. At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. All right, so one of the first things we notice here is that the Father is Lord of heaven and earth. I mean, we've known that all along. The next thing that we'll notice is all things have been delivered to me by my Father. So I would submit that Jesus is God with us because the Father delivers all things to Him. All right. And then he goes on to say, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, of course, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. The Father reveals the Son to us, and we are the ones who call Him Immanuel. You know, you go back, they shall call His name Immanuel. Who will call His name Immanuel? Those who see the Father revealed in the Son, you know, we just pause and think about that. We don't have to have anything mystical about this in terms of understanding it. You know, when we see Jesus and we see the compassion that He exercises, we're seeing His Father's compassion. When we see Him overturn the tables of the money changers in the temple, we're seeing His Father's wrath at this point. When we see His healing powers, we're seeing His Father at work through Him by the power of His Holy Spirit to save men. When we hear His words, the words that He speaks of life, we're hearing the Father speak. So He reveals the Father to us in all of these things, and therefore we see that God is with us in Him. We may call Him Immanuel. We then come back again to the climax, so we have introduction, center, climax. And Jesus comes to His disciples in His exalted state. He's been resurrected. He came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. We immediately see the echo of wording. All authority has been given to me. All things have been delivered to me by my Father. In heaven and on earth, the Father is Lord of heaven and earth. So He is constantly in a position of dependence on His Father. So the role that Jesus has even now in His exalted state is a delegated role. It's given to Him. And we have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit language again. The Father is at work in the Son by the power of His Holy Spirit. And so again, the Son is Immanuel. The Father is at work in Him through the power of His Holy Spirit. This is what's going on now. We ask, what is Jesus doing now? Well, this is a picture of it, isn't it? He's working in concert with His Father. So the Father is working with Him through the power of His Holy Spirit to bring us to new life and whatever else in the way of controls they exercise in this world. And so when the Son says, I am with you always, God is therefore with us always in the resurrected Son. So the Immanuel name now that He would be called by at His birth is now made eternal in the exalted Son. The passages to my mind at least complement each other and give us an understanding of what Matthew is telling us and the beauties of it. Take another one. Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? These are the words of the wise man when they come to Jerusalem. But the roots of this go back to what we often think of as the genealogy in Matthew 1. And the genealogy that is given there of ancestry, David the King, David the King begot Solomon and on down the line, Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who was called Christ. And it's a line that tells us categorically, even before we get to the wise men in chapter two, that Jesus was born to be King of the Jews. All right, we're going to see how this plays out. Again it's setting the stage for things to come. And so ignoring the chapter break at the beginning of chapter two, which didn't exist when Matthew wrote, now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold wise men came from the East came to Jerusalem saying, Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? We have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him. When Herod the King heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes and the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. So they said to him, and Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, but you Bethlehem and the land of Judah are not the least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. And so we see the wise men come from the East, brothers and sisters, in a story that is lovely, commemorated on Christmas cards, commemorated in Christmas carols, we tell our children these stories in the Sunday school, but it isn't just there as an end in itself. Because it's really setting the stage for a huge dynamic that's going to play out in the ministry of Jesus. Something is desperately wrong with this picture. We've just had the lineage that takes us from David the King down to Jesus, who's called Christ. The Jews of all people have the messianic hope since the time of King David. They are waiting for the one who is born King of the Jews. And what are the chief priests and scribes doing here, brothers and sisters? The best that they can do when the news comes that he's been born, where is he to be born, they know the scripture. They can take Herod back to what Micah says and tell them that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, but they do nothing else. There's no hint. It seems to me, when we think about this picture, that the chief priests and scribes ought to have taken a deep interest in what the wise men were saying and even gone with them. But they're totally passive. In this story, the record is totally passive. And we begin to see why. It's not the only time this kind of thing happens. Where there is some reach out to the priests and those who are with them, a testimony is born to them, and there's no response, or the response is anything but what it ought to be. And when we get to the climax, we see how it plays out. Jesus stood before the governor. The governor asked him, saying, are you the king of the Jews? So Jesus said to him, it is as you say. And while he was being accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. So this is what's wrong with the picture is the fact that Gentiles are going to come looking for the king of the Jews and worship him before the Jews do. And of course, we go further to the crucifixion. And they put up over his head the accusation written against him, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. Likewise, the chief priests, also mocking with the scribes and elders, said, he saved others himself. He cannot save. If he's the king of Israel, let him come down from the cross. Let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. What's interesting here just in passing, brothers and sisters, is Matthew is the only gospel that speaks of Jesus as the king of the Jews at the beginning and the end. All four gospels will have the king of the Jews language in the trials or the inscription on the cross, but only Matthew has it at the beginning. And he is setting the stage for things to come. And one of the things that Matthew will develop in the rest of his gospel is just this, Gentiles will accept Jesus as the king of the Jews before the Jews do. All right, the stage is being set in the introduction. Out of Egypt, I called my son. Let's have a look at that because that also is stage setting. When we read this story in Matthew chapter two, the language of death and resurrection is written into Matthew's Egypt story. So Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. He will put to death all the male children in Bethlehem and its districts. So the death, the death targeted actually at the young child is written into Matthew's story. But the young child is going to escape from that. Arise, take the young child, Joseph is being instructed. So he arose, he took the young child. And the language is just incidentally written into here. The rise, the rose is the language of resurrection. And there'll be more of it as the story unfolds. So while Herod is murdering the infant boys of Bethlehem, Jesus escapes. But he is taken through a typical death and resurrection experience of his own. All right, that's what going into Egypt and coming out of Egypt is about. Egypt is the place of death. Again, we can go back to Genesis. It's the way Genesis ends with Joseph dying and being embalmed in Egypt. It's not only the place of death, but Egypt is the place of the death of the firstborn, isn't it, as well, when we get into the Exodus period. So fleeing to Egypt typifies the death of Jesus. He obviously can't be caught up in Herod's murderous dragnet, or that would be the end of salvation. But his escape into Egypt is the fact that he must ultimately go through a death experience. And coming out of Egypt typifies his resurrection, his deliverance from the place of death. And of course, they both become a reality in Matthew's climax. Morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put him to death. And then, on the first day, the angel answered and said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He's not here. He's risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay, and go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead. So what is being portended, what is being pointed to in the Egypt experience of Jesus going into Egypt and coming out, is looking forward to the fact that he will himself undergo a death and resurrection experience. There's something else, you know, when I got thinking about this, brothers and sisters, you know, and these things begin to kind of come together, as well as I can tell you. When they began to come together, I suddenly realized that there is a sublime lesson of atonement written into this Egypt story of Matthews. All right, I just want to point this out. Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. So, depart for Egypt, be there until the death of Herod. When Herod was dead, arise, take the young child. And so he arose and took the young child and came out of Egypt. The lesson that struck me here, and leave this for you to ponder yourself if you wish, is that while Jesus lived, the evil one represented by Herod sought to destroy his life. In Jesus' death, or his typical death, symbolized by being in Egypt, those who sought his life died. Sten died in the death of Jesus, and he rose from the dead, out of Egypt, I called my son. So, just things happening here in Matthew's introduction that are really truly setting the stage for everything that is to come. He shall be called a Nazarene. That one's perplexed us for a long time. It's not, you know, totally straightforward. So, Joseph arises, he takes the young child and his mother and comes into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene. And you know as well as I do that we can search in vain for a single Old Testament prophet, let alone prophets who say that the Christ will be called a Nazarene. I know we make something of the Hebrew word metzer, a noun in the Old Testament, fairly rare. And to the best of my knowledge, it's only Isaiah, who speaks of him as the branch, the netzer branch. But Matthew's got something else in mind, it seems to me. Fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene. But what's interesting is, again, when you begin to look for symmetrical ideas, Galilee and Nazareth come together again in Matthew's climax. Not only do they come together, they tell us what Jesus was being called. Now Peter sat outside in the courtyard, you know the scene now, it's the Jewish trial of Jesus. Peter sat outside in the courtyard and a servant girl came to him saying, you also were with Jesus of Galilee. But he denied it before them all saying, I do not know what you are saying. And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were with him, this fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth. But again, he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. The context is telling here, isn't it? Because the context is Jesus' arrest, his Jewish trial, and Peter's denial of him. It's not difficult to see where this leads us. I do not know the man. To be called a Nazarene is to be despised and rejected by men. And this, to my mind, is very satisfying, because it gives us a clear idea of why Matthew says this in the beginning, and we see how it's going to work out in the rest of his ministry. And before we just remind ourselves of some Old Testament prophets, we've already seen the wise men who come, and they worship the one who's born king of the Jews, and the Jews show no sign of particular interest. And now, further on in Matthew's introduction, being called a Nazarene is pointing us to the stories in the introduction, set the stage for things that we often find coming to their culmination in the climax of Matthew's gospel. And of course, being despised and rejected by men just opens up the floodgates of Old Testament prophets, Moses and the law. Speaking of Joseph, who we know as a wonderful messianic figure, his brothers said to him, shall you indeed reign over us, or shall you indeed have dominion over us? So they hated him for his dreams and his words. We come forward to David in the Psalms. I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. We come forward to the Isaiah 53 passage. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we did not esteem him. So now, all kinds of prophets come to mind. Others. I mean, we can think of Jeremiah, we can think of others who fill out messianic roles, and they're despised and rejected. And the whole retinue of Old Testament stories like that, is well known to Matthew when he wrote it, as they are to us. And what strikes me, and I put this to you for what it's worth and what you want to think about it, it is possible that Matthew simply uses the term Nazarene to remind us of all of these obvious Old Testament examples. It's further consistent with the fact that Matthew's introduction anticipates the climax. The despised Nazarene becomes the despised Nazarene. Just one other thing before we leave Matthew's introduction and climax. Matthew cites five Old Testament prophecies that are being fulfilled in the events that surround the birth and infancy of Jesus, and they themselves form a symmetrical pattern. The first is Isaiah 7, his name shall be called Emmanuel. So try again. They shall call his name Emmanuel. The second of Micah 2, a ruler who was shepherd my people Israel. The third is Hosea 11, out of Egypt I call my son. The fourth from Jeremiah, Rachel leaping for her children. And the fifth from unnamed prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene. And they play off against each other. They shall call his name Emmanuel. He shall be called a Nazarene. And so while those who see the Father revealed in him and all of the Father's wonders and magnitude, they will call his name Emmanuel, God with us. But those who despise and reject him will be a whole different class of people. He shall be called a Nazarene. You look at the second and fourth ones, you have a ruler who shepherds my people Israel, and you have Rachel leaping for her children. This is the family of Jacob. The first one is birth at Bethlehem, and the second is death at Bethlehem. And for all the rest of the ministry of Jesus, that's the choice that Israel will have to make, is a choice between life and death, between the ruler who will shepherd the people Israel give them life or the death that comes from rejecting him. And at the center of this, out of Egypt, I call my son, is the message of deliverance. It's the message of resurrection. It's the hope for redemption for those who will put their faith in him. So there's just marvelous things to see by putting these up against each other. Matthew's introduction sets the stage for everything that follows, and it has its fulfillment in the climax of his gospel. All right, let's come to discourse one and discourse five. We probably won't get through all of these, because I have several through the rest of Matthew's gospel. But I think what it will do for us in any case, brothers and sisters, is help us to realize how Matthew plays one thing off against another and uses symmetry to augment and to help us understand what's in one place and may even seem to stand by itself. And in the process, fill out the wonderful picture of the gospel message. Discourse one and discourse five. The first discourse is the Sermon on the Mount, and the Beatitudes are at the beginning of that. The last discourse is the Olivet Discourse. And the last part of that is the parable of the sheep and the goats. So let's just put these out side by side. And immediately, when we start recognizing how Matthew uses symmetry, we can begin looking for verbal connections, and not just verbal connections, but concept connections. And so in the two, we've got language that's obviously comparable. Blessed the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteous mistake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. So right away, these two teachings of Jesus at the beginning of the first discourse and the last have counterparts, and they're worth really comparing with each other. We look at the Beatitudes. Poor in spirit, mourn, meek, hunger and thirst for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecuted for righteousness sake. And all of this, all of these are qualities of the disciples. Qualities, brothers and sisters, that Jesus begets new life in, the qualities of the new life that Jesus begets in us. He's working through his word and no doubt other ways that we hardly understand to beget these qualities in us, many of them internal. Poor in spirit, the mourning, the meekness, the hungry and thirsting for righteousness, even being merciful because of the heart, purity of heart and so on. We come over to the end of the last discourse and we see the external beauties, the external graces that are manifested in the disciple who's born from above. You gave me food, you gave me drink, you took me in, you clothed me, you visited me, you came to me. And some of these, yes, require us to share our material goods with each other. And some of them, like you visited me, you came to me, require nothing more than our sharing the time that God has given us with someone else. For what is internal in the one place, largely, it manifests itself. It's things like this that strike me. We are born from above and the qualities that are begotten in us, there in the Beatitudes, show themselves here in the sheep at the end here. And the point that it occurs to me is that being born again is not just a single event in our life, but is a whole lifestyle. And when God begets children, begets them anew, he does not beget fruitless children. So what is begotten in us will manifest itself. And these teachings at the beginning and the end of the discourses complement each other wonderfully in this way. Take the two builders and the ten virgins. And here we have them. I won't take the time to read these because our time is flying. But let me just show some verbal connections here. First of all, and we will see a symmetrical placement, we will see symmetrical concept, we'll see symmetrical wording. These are the only two contexts in Matthew's Gospel where he speaks of the wise and foolish together. In fact, they are the only two contexts in all four Gospels that speak of the wise and the foolish in the same context. Use those terms. Luke will have the parable of the two builders. He'll have everything that's here on the left essentially, but he doesn't call them wise and foolish. All right? So these are unique features in Matthew's Gospel, symmetrically placed in Discourse 1 and Discourse 5. And we have this Lord, Lord appeal. Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name and cast out demons and so forth? It is an appeal by the desperate at the end for acceptance when they're not acceptable. And the foolish virgins, Lord, Lord, open to us. The only place where the Lord, Lord language is used in Matthew's Gospel. The response of Jesus, I never knew you. I do not know you. In that day, the day, the hour. And then we have the sort of enigmatic feature of the parable of the virgins. The wise took oil in their vessels and we ponder, what is the oil? And every time I hear brothers and sisters pondering this, and I do myself, the ideas that I hear are good ones. They're good ones. I think we get to the essence of this. But what I found interesting when we begin to compare things that are geometrically placed is that when we come back to the parable of two builders, there is a concrete manifestation of what makes them wise. Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man. So the wise with the oil in their vessels, the oil is ultimately their discipleship. They hear the sayings of Jesus and they do them, not just as works, but they do them in the way of being transformed by them. I liken him to a wise man. And so this kind of ongoing discipleship of listening to Jesus and responding to him, this kind of ongoing discipleship prepares us for his coming. In the meantime, the foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. And Jesus says everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man. So it's incumbent upon us to listen to Jesus and let him affect us. And somehow it would seem the foolish in the second parable, the foolish virgins realized when the Lord came, they hadn't really been ready. And it's the discipleship that we live that prepares us for the coming. So the oil in the lamps, the very least, the first parable gives us a concrete understanding. We come to ministry two and ministry four. It is here that we meet the centurion with a servant and the Canaanite woman whose daughter is affected. And again, the language and the concepts, the centurion, and for sake of time, I'll just touch on the highlights here. The centurion and the woman of Canaan in the region of Tyre and Sidon are both gentiles. They appeal to Jesus respectfully, came pleading with him, Lord, cried out to him, oh Lord, came, cried out to him, oh Lord, son of David. That's a marvelous insight for this Canaanite woman to know something of the messianic hope of Israel. She came, worshiped him, Lord, help me. My servant is lying at home, paralyzed, dreadfully tormented. My daughter is severely demon -possessed. They're both appealing on behalf of someone else. There's just any number of parallels and they are symmetrically placed in these two ministry portions of Matthew's gospel. They both have a humble sense of their status and they're able to express it. Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof. Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs of whom I am one eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table. A lovely sense, humble sense of one's status or lack of status, which ultimately defines us, doesn't it? Both have an Israel lesson built into them. On the one hand, with the centurion, Jesus says, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel. In the case of the Canaanite woman, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So there's certain things to be learned from these about, as in the first case, this centurion has more faith than he's meeting in Israel. It kind of takes us back to things that Matthew pointed to in the introduction of how Jesus was going to be received and treated. On the other hand, with the Canaanite woman, the principle still held that the gospel was to the Jews first and afterward to the Gentiles, but categorically it was for the Gentiles as well. And so they are both encouraged with the same kind of words. As you have believed, so let it be done for you. Great as your faith, let it be to you as you desire. And believe and faith are basically verb and noun forms of the same word. And they are functional in these people and it is rewarded. And the way that the healing ultimately takes place, again, has just wonderful verbal comparison. His servant was healed at that same hour. Her daughter was healed from that very hour. Wording, symmetrical placement, concept, Gentiles, again Gentiles, expanding on what we began to see with the three wise men. They came and worshiped the king of the Jews before the Jews did. And one of the things that just strikes me as wonderfully appropriate too about these two situations is the healing of the centurion's servant and the healing of the woman's daughter are both taking place at a distance. And it just carries this little hint that at this point the Gentile was still far off. And yet ultimately, as far off as the Gentiles might be, Jesus is going to be receptive. He is going to include them because they have faith. Because they have faith. Came and worshiped him. Sounds like the wise men. What's also interesting in this symmetrical arrangement, ministry two on the one hand, ministry four on the other, is that ministry three, I know my math, comes between them. Ministry three is between these two Gentile stories. And as we looked at last week, ministry three is all about Israel's tragic response to Jesus. You see how Matthew just develops these ideas and puts them there and lets us compare them and lets us ponder them. The Gentiles with their faith and Israel in between with his tragic response to Jesus. We're not going to get time to look at the development of ministry three, which really highlights this. But it's Matthew's symmetry. Oh my, we're running a little short of time. Let me just do one more in ministry two and four and we'll make it quick. Let me just show you the language. The coming of the storm in ministry two, we know the stories well. And the walking on the sea in ministry four. Both on the sea. Both require the disciples to appeal. Lord save us. Lord save me in Peter's case. Why are you fearfully, he says to them. They cried out for fear. Peter was afraid. Oh you of little faith is an expression Jesus uses in both stories as he upgrades them. For again, you'd have to afraid me under those circumstances for just being frightened for our lives. And then he speaks peace. There was a great calm. The wind ceased. And then the beauty of this symmetry brothers and sisters really begins to come to the fore in my mind. The men marvel on the one hand. Those in the boat come and worship him and the other. And then comes the climax of this. The first storm on the Sea of Galilee ultimately induces when Jesus has shown the marvels of his great power. It induces them to ask who can this be? And the second storm induces them to answer their own question. Truly you are the Son of God. And we're going to end here. But this is the crying issue of the ministry of Jesus. He came in his father's name. He did the things that show that God was with us. And people had to make up their minds about him. The disciples are going through this process. And it's a process that Jesus allows them to take its course. He doesn't beat them over the head and tell them I am the Christ. Ultimately he'll ask them that question and they'll have to confess it. But the question that was the prime thing Israel had to address during his ministry was who is this man? Who can this be? And the disciples are going through the process themselves. And the process is left to work itself out because that engenders faith. That requires us to come to faith. So ministry four, the walking on the sea being a part of that, ministry four of Matthew's gospel documents Israel's assessment of the identity of Jesus. And they're all over the lot. They must come to the conclusion, who is this man? Interestingly, it's in ministry four that the disciples will confess their faith that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. That's Matthew 16. And the walking on the sea story here is supportive of this theme. Who can this be? Truly you are the son of God. So we've got to stop there. I'd like to look at ministry three. I'd like to look at a distributed symmetry that touches all the discourses of Jesus. But never mind. The point is that Matthew's seven-part arrangement lends itself to the symmetrical placement of material. The placement is not only there physically in a symmetrical way, but the verbal comparisons are there and the concepts are there and they augment each other so that nothing stands alone. And Matthew will interpret Matthew for us and give us wonderful insights into the developing ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ.