Matthew (Part 2)
Bible Study Time 9-30-07
Bible Study Time 9-30-07
Last week we looked at the fact that the book of Matthew presents Jesus as the King of Israel. Matthew’s genealogy goes back only so far as Abraham, and it emphasizes that Jesus was both the son of David and the son of Abraham. For Jesus to qualify as Israel’s Messiah, He had to be the Son of David and the Son of Abraham.
But according to the promise that God gave to David, the Messiah also had to be the Son of God. Therefore, the Gospel of Matthew also emphasizes that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a virgin.
In Matthew, Chapter 2, we read about the wise men who came to Jerusalem from the east, asking, “Where is He that is born the King of the Jews?” Matthew is the only gospel writer who tells us about the visit of the wise men, and it seems that Matthew wanted the Jews to know that even certain Gentiles had heard the clear message of God, that Jesus was the promised King of the Jews. We can be sure that as Matthew wrote his gospel, he was hoping and praying that the nation of Israel would, like the wise men, respond to the word of God and come to Jesus by faith.
God never expects anyone to believe anything that has not been revealed. During the Lord’s earthly ministry, the Jews did not have to believe that Jesus died for their sins. That’s obvious because Jesus had not died at that point. In fact, they did not have to believe that Jesus was going to die for their sins. That was something that was well hidden in the Old Testament prophecies.
As it turns out, even the Jews who lived in the early years after the cross did not have to believe that Jesus died for their sins. That was not specifically revealed until the Apostle Paul started his public ministry and that was fourteen years after the cross. We find in Paul’s Acts-period epistles that Paul went out as a minister of the New Covenant explaining the fact that when Christ died, He died for our sins according to the scriptures, and He was buried and He rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
Before Paul’s message of salvation through faith in the blood of Christ, people were required to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Peter said to Jesus in Matthew, Chapter 16, “We believe that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Martha said to Jesus in John, Chapter 11, “Yes Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.” Even the Ethiopian in Acts, Chapter 8, simply said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
So the primary purpose of Matthew’s gospel was to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Christ, and he was hoping that the Jews would respond to the word of God and come to Jesus even as the wise men from the east had done.
Matthew was a faithful minister of the word of God, and many of the Jews did believe in Jesus as a result of his testimony and the testimony of the other Apostles. God’s word will not return to Him void, but it will accomplish all that it is sent to accomplish. If we need salvation, the word of God tells us exactly what we have to do to be saved. Salvation has always been by faith for without faith it is impossible to please God, but as I mentioned earlier, what people have had to believe through the ages of history has been somewhat different from one age to another. The more God reveals, the more accountable we are. As Jesus said, “To whom much is given, from him much shall be required.”
If we need to be convicted of sin, the word of God is able to do that. If we need forgiveness for sin, the word of God is totally sufficient to give us assurance of God’s forgiveness. Praise the Lord:
2 Timothy 3:16-17 NKJV
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Matthew gave out the word of God, and he told the nation of Israel that even the wise men from the east came asking, “Where is He that is born the King of the Jews?”
The book of Matthew was written fifty years after Jesus was born, and it was written twenty years after the cross. The power of the Holy Spirit had already come upon the believers, the persecution of the Church in Jerusalem had already begun, and Paul and Barnabas were already ministering to the believing Gentiles up in Antioch of Syria.
The believing Jews and the believing Gentiles had experienced the mighty miracles, wonders and signs of the Holy Spirit, and it must have seemed that the Lord Jesus would return at any minute. It was during this somewhat disjointed and confusing time that Matthew and Mark were led to write their gospel accounts of the life of Jesus.
The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem had crucified Jesus. They had stoned Stephen, and they were threatening to kill anyone who professed to believe in Jesus. In spite of this, Matthew and the other Apostles still believed that Jesus could come back at any time because they knew that when Jesus did come back, He would destroy the unbelieving Jews and take only the believing Jews into the kingdom. It was John the Baptist who said:
Matthew 3:10-12 NKJV
10 . . . even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.*
12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
Matthew tells us that after the wise men left Judea without reporting back to King Herod, Herod became furious, and his heart was filled with murder. He ordered the death of all the baby boys in Bethlehem who were two years of age and younger. He was not about to take any chances when it came to holding onto his position of power and authority.
It is interesting that Herod thought his plan to kill the babies in Bethlehem was a result of his own craftiness and his own wisdom. However, in the book of the Revelation, the Apostle John saw a vision that explains the spiritual reality behind what Herod was doing. Revelation, Chapter 12, says:
Revelation 12:1 NKJV
1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.
This woman stands for the nation of Israel. Her relationship with God is bound by the ordinance of the sun and the moon. The laws of God dictate that the sun will rise in the morning and the moon will shine at night, and just as sure as the sun will rise in the morning, God will certainly fulfill his promises to Israel. In Jeremiah 31, God said that:
Jeremiah 31:36 NKJV
36 "If those ordinances (of the sun and the moon) depart From before Me, says the LORD, Then the seed of Israel shall also cease From being a nation before Me forever."
God is bound by His own laws to fulfill His promises to Israel. Therefore, the woman in Revelation 12 is under the protection of God, and she has twelve stars in her crown to illustrate the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel.
Then John says that:
Revelation 12:2 NKJV
2 . . . being with child, (the woman) cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.
During the time that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the Jews were under the heavy hand of Roman oppression. They were suffering like the Jews who were enslaved in Egypt 1500 years earlier.
They were crying out to God for deliverance, and God heard their cry. However, under the Egyptians and under the Romans, the nation of Israel had an adversary who was much more powerful than either Pharaoh or Herod. Their adversary was Satan, himself, the very enemy of God. John said:
Revelation 12:3 NKJV
3 . . . another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.
This is the consistent picture of the devil that we see throughout the book of the Revelation. The devil is the spiritual power behind all of the Gentile empires that have ruled over the Jews ever since the Assyrians first conquered the nation of Israel in 600 B.C.
The devil was the power behind the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks and the Romans, and in each of these great empires the devil used his power to try and destroy the little nation of Israel because he knew that someday the Messiah would come through her.
Well, the devil was never able to destroy the woman because God was and is bound by His own laws to protect the woman because this woman was to bring forth the deliverer, the One through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. In Revelation 12, John said that the fiery red dragon:
Revelation 12:4 NKJV
4 . . . stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.
The devil had been unsuccessful in all of his previous efforts through the centuries to destroy the nation of Israel, but now, with the birth of the Messiah near at hand, he was marshalling his satanic forces to devour the child of the woman. Herod thought he was being so wise and so crafty when he put together his plan to kill Jesus, but in reality he was nothing more than the unsuspecting dupe in a great satanic conspiracy.
It is overwhelming to think that Satan can use unsuspecting humans to accomplish his cosmic plans for the earth. It’s sobering to think that the devil wants to use us and those around us to fulfill his plans. However, God has told us not to be afraid but to walk by faith. In Isaiah 41:10, God said:
Isaiah 41:10 KJV
10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Paul told Timothy that:
2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV
7 . . . God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Then I John, Chapter 4, says that we have no reason to fear because He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.
All we have to do is follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, knowing that if we trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and lean not on our own understanding, and if we acknowledge the Lord in all of our ways, He will direct our paths.
Herod didn’t know that he was just a pawn in Satan’s plan, but the good news for us is that we as believers can also be used in the same way by the Lord. The Lord can use us in ways that we don’t even know or understand. Not until we stand before Him will we know and understand all of the things that God was able to accomplish through us while we were simply walking by faith and following the leading of the Holy Spirit.
That is a thought that should encourage each and every one of us to walk by faith and not by sight. It is God whose plan is good and acceptable and perfect, and it is God who is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
In Revelation 12:5, John goes on to say that the woman:
Revelation 12:5 NKJV
5 . . . bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.
The devil was powerless to destroy the child of the woman. There is nothing the devil can do to prevent the Lord from accomplishing His plan and purpose. Many times we talk about faith, but we live as if the outcome of life is in our own hands, but that is not the case. God is the one who is sovereign over all things.
Well, when Matthew wrote his gospel, the Lord Jesus had come into the world as the Seed of the Woman. He had been crucified and raised from the dead. He had been taken up into heaven where He was waiting at the right hand of God for Israel to accept Him as their King.
But as Jesus had warned His disciples, before the second coming of the Son of Man, there would be on the earth a time of great tribulation, and this too is referred to in John’s vision of the woman in Revelation 12. Verse 6 says:
Revelation 12:6 NKJV
6 . . . the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
The Jewish calendar is based on the 30 day cycle of the moon, so that there are 30 days in the month and 360 days in a year. Therefore by the Jewish calendar, the total of one thousand, two hundred and sixty days is exactly three and a half years. So John says that the woman, who represents the believing nation of Israel, will flee into the wilderness where she will be protected by God from the antichrist and from the devil for three and a half years.
It was twenty years after the cross that Matthew wrote about the treacherous deeds of King Herod, and it was sixty years after the cross that John gave us some insight into the spiritual backdrop of those events. As powerful as King Herod was, he was nothing more than an unsuspecting participant in Satan’s plan to destroy to the coming of the Messiah.
Well, I see our time is gone for this morning. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to studying with you again next week at this same time.
Church links:
http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/
http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/
http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/
But according to the promise that God gave to David, the Messiah also had to be the Son of God. Therefore, the Gospel of Matthew also emphasizes that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a virgin.
In Matthew, Chapter 2, we read about the wise men who came to Jerusalem from the east, asking, “Where is He that is born the King of the Jews?” Matthew is the only gospel writer who tells us about the visit of the wise men, and it seems that Matthew wanted the Jews to know that even certain Gentiles had heard the clear message of God, that Jesus was the promised King of the Jews. We can be sure that as Matthew wrote his gospel, he was hoping and praying that the nation of Israel would, like the wise men, respond to the word of God and come to Jesus by faith.
God never expects anyone to believe anything that has not been revealed. During the Lord’s earthly ministry, the Jews did not have to believe that Jesus died for their sins. That’s obvious because Jesus had not died at that point. In fact, they did not have to believe that Jesus was going to die for their sins. That was something that was well hidden in the Old Testament prophecies.
As it turns out, even the Jews who lived in the early years after the cross did not have to believe that Jesus died for their sins. That was not specifically revealed until the Apostle Paul started his public ministry and that was fourteen years after the cross. We find in Paul’s Acts-period epistles that Paul went out as a minister of the New Covenant explaining the fact that when Christ died, He died for our sins according to the scriptures, and He was buried and He rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
Before Paul’s message of salvation through faith in the blood of Christ, people were required to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Peter said to Jesus in Matthew, Chapter 16, “We believe that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Martha said to Jesus in John, Chapter 11, “Yes Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.” Even the Ethiopian in Acts, Chapter 8, simply said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
So the primary purpose of Matthew’s gospel was to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Christ, and he was hoping that the Jews would respond to the word of God and come to Jesus even as the wise men from the east had done.
Matthew was a faithful minister of the word of God, and many of the Jews did believe in Jesus as a result of his testimony and the testimony of the other Apostles. God’s word will not return to Him void, but it will accomplish all that it is sent to accomplish. If we need salvation, the word of God tells us exactly what we have to do to be saved. Salvation has always been by faith for without faith it is impossible to please God, but as I mentioned earlier, what people have had to believe through the ages of history has been somewhat different from one age to another. The more God reveals, the more accountable we are. As Jesus said, “To whom much is given, from him much shall be required.”
If we need to be convicted of sin, the word of God is able to do that. If we need forgiveness for sin, the word of God is totally sufficient to give us assurance of God’s forgiveness. Praise the Lord:
2 Timothy 3:16-17 NKJV
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Matthew gave out the word of God, and he told the nation of Israel that even the wise men from the east came asking, “Where is He that is born the King of the Jews?”
The book of Matthew was written fifty years after Jesus was born, and it was written twenty years after the cross. The power of the Holy Spirit had already come upon the believers, the persecution of the Church in Jerusalem had already begun, and Paul and Barnabas were already ministering to the believing Gentiles up in Antioch of Syria.
The believing Jews and the believing Gentiles had experienced the mighty miracles, wonders and signs of the Holy Spirit, and it must have seemed that the Lord Jesus would return at any minute. It was during this somewhat disjointed and confusing time that Matthew and Mark were led to write their gospel accounts of the life of Jesus.
The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem had crucified Jesus. They had stoned Stephen, and they were threatening to kill anyone who professed to believe in Jesus. In spite of this, Matthew and the other Apostles still believed that Jesus could come back at any time because they knew that when Jesus did come back, He would destroy the unbelieving Jews and take only the believing Jews into the kingdom. It was John the Baptist who said:
Matthew 3:10-12 NKJV
10 . . . even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.*
12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
Matthew tells us that after the wise men left Judea without reporting back to King Herod, Herod became furious, and his heart was filled with murder. He ordered the death of all the baby boys in Bethlehem who were two years of age and younger. He was not about to take any chances when it came to holding onto his position of power and authority.
It is interesting that Herod thought his plan to kill the babies in Bethlehem was a result of his own craftiness and his own wisdom. However, in the book of the Revelation, the Apostle John saw a vision that explains the spiritual reality behind what Herod was doing. Revelation, Chapter 12, says:
Revelation 12:1 NKJV
1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.
This woman stands for the nation of Israel. Her relationship with God is bound by the ordinance of the sun and the moon. The laws of God dictate that the sun will rise in the morning and the moon will shine at night, and just as sure as the sun will rise in the morning, God will certainly fulfill his promises to Israel. In Jeremiah 31, God said that:
Jeremiah 31:36 NKJV
36 "If those ordinances (of the sun and the moon) depart From before Me, says the LORD, Then the seed of Israel shall also cease From being a nation before Me forever."
God is bound by His own laws to fulfill His promises to Israel. Therefore, the woman in Revelation 12 is under the protection of God, and she has twelve stars in her crown to illustrate the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel.
Then John says that:
Revelation 12:2 NKJV
2 . . . being with child, (the woman) cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.
During the time that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the Jews were under the heavy hand of Roman oppression. They were suffering like the Jews who were enslaved in Egypt 1500 years earlier.
They were crying out to God for deliverance, and God heard their cry. However, under the Egyptians and under the Romans, the nation of Israel had an adversary who was much more powerful than either Pharaoh or Herod. Their adversary was Satan, himself, the very enemy of God. John said:
Revelation 12:3 NKJV
3 . . . another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.
This is the consistent picture of the devil that we see throughout the book of the Revelation. The devil is the spiritual power behind all of the Gentile empires that have ruled over the Jews ever since the Assyrians first conquered the nation of Israel in 600 B.C.
The devil was the power behind the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks and the Romans, and in each of these great empires the devil used his power to try and destroy the little nation of Israel because he knew that someday the Messiah would come through her.
Well, the devil was never able to destroy the woman because God was and is bound by His own laws to protect the woman because this woman was to bring forth the deliverer, the One through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. In Revelation 12, John said that the fiery red dragon:
Revelation 12:4 NKJV
4 . . . stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.
The devil had been unsuccessful in all of his previous efforts through the centuries to destroy the nation of Israel, but now, with the birth of the Messiah near at hand, he was marshalling his satanic forces to devour the child of the woman. Herod thought he was being so wise and so crafty when he put together his plan to kill Jesus, but in reality he was nothing more than the unsuspecting dupe in a great satanic conspiracy.
It is overwhelming to think that Satan can use unsuspecting humans to accomplish his cosmic plans for the earth. It’s sobering to think that the devil wants to use us and those around us to fulfill his plans. However, God has told us not to be afraid but to walk by faith. In Isaiah 41:10, God said:
Isaiah 41:10 KJV
10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Paul told Timothy that:
2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV
7 . . . God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Then I John, Chapter 4, says that we have no reason to fear because He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.
All we have to do is follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, knowing that if we trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and lean not on our own understanding, and if we acknowledge the Lord in all of our ways, He will direct our paths.
Herod didn’t know that he was just a pawn in Satan’s plan, but the good news for us is that we as believers can also be used in the same way by the Lord. The Lord can use us in ways that we don’t even know or understand. Not until we stand before Him will we know and understand all of the things that God was able to accomplish through us while we were simply walking by faith and following the leading of the Holy Spirit.
That is a thought that should encourage each and every one of us to walk by faith and not by sight. It is God whose plan is good and acceptable and perfect, and it is God who is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
In Revelation 12:5, John goes on to say that the woman:
Revelation 12:5 NKJV
5 . . . bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.
The devil was powerless to destroy the child of the woman. There is nothing the devil can do to prevent the Lord from accomplishing His plan and purpose. Many times we talk about faith, but we live as if the outcome of life is in our own hands, but that is not the case. God is the one who is sovereign over all things.
Well, when Matthew wrote his gospel, the Lord Jesus had come into the world as the Seed of the Woman. He had been crucified and raised from the dead. He had been taken up into heaven where He was waiting at the right hand of God for Israel to accept Him as their King.
But as Jesus had warned His disciples, before the second coming of the Son of Man, there would be on the earth a time of great tribulation, and this too is referred to in John’s vision of the woman in Revelation 12. Verse 6 says:
Revelation 12:6 NKJV
6 . . . the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
The Jewish calendar is based on the 30 day cycle of the moon, so that there are 30 days in the month and 360 days in a year. Therefore by the Jewish calendar, the total of one thousand, two hundred and sixty days is exactly three and a half years. So John says that the woman, who represents the believing nation of Israel, will flee into the wilderness where she will be protected by God from the antichrist and from the devil for three and a half years.
It was twenty years after the cross that Matthew wrote about the treacherous deeds of King Herod, and it was sixty years after the cross that John gave us some insight into the spiritual backdrop of those events. As powerful as King Herod was, he was nothing more than an unsuspecting participant in Satan’s plan to destroy to the coming of the Messiah.
Well, I see our time is gone for this morning. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to studying with you again next week at this same time.
Church links:
http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/
http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/
http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/
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