Matthew (Part 8)(BST 11-11-07)

Matthew (Part 8)
Bible Study Time 11-11-07

Today, we’re continuing our study of the book of Matthew which is, of course, one of the four gospels. We call Matthew, Mark, Luke and John the Gospels, and that’s kind of interesting because they don’t specifically contain the gospel message. For the gospel as we know it today, we turn to I Corinthians 15 where Paul says:

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 NKJV
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,
2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you — unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,

Though the gospels are brief, they are oh so powerful. One cannot help but be overwhelmed by Jesus’ compassion for the people He touched and healed, by the grace with which He dealt with the arrogant and hard-hearted religious leaders of His day, by His special relationship with the Father in heaven. From the gospels we see that Jesus knew the hearts of men, and He was willing to submit to the plan and purpose of God.

The gospels present the good news that the Promised Savior-Messiah came into the world. The bad news is that He was rejected by mankind and crucified upon a cross. However, the good news picks up again with the resurrection and ascension of Christ.

Six thousand years before the birth of Christ, God had promised in the Garden of Eden that a Redeemer would come as the Seed of the Woman. This Redeemer was to wound the head of Satan and deliver mankind from the guilt and penalty of sin.

This promise of a Redeemer was further defined 2000 years later when Abraham was promised a Seed through whom all the families and nations of the earth would be blessed. Five hundred years after Abraham, Moses was told that God was going to send a Prophet into the world who would speak the words of God and do great miracles. God said that the people would be held accountable for every word spoken by this Prophet. Then after another 500 years, King David was told that from his Seed the Messiah would come to rule from the throne of David as the King over an everlasting kingdom of righteousness.

So when Jesus was born as the Promised Seed, it was good news. The Promised Redeemer, the Promised Prophet, the Promised King had come into the world. The night that Jesus was born, an angel appeared to the shepherds and said:

Luke 2:10-14 (NKJ)
10 . . . I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
11 "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
12 "And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger."
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

The angels sang and the hearts of men rejoiced to think that the Savior-Messiah had come. The gospels record the virgin birth of Jesus and Jesus’ declaration that He was the Messiah. They tell of His death, burial, resurrection and ascension, but they do not reveal the significance of these events in terms of the gospel message that we preach today.

Even in the ministry of the twelve Apostles during the early part of the Acts period, we do not see the gospel as we know it today. The message of the twelve was simply the good news that Jesus was the Messiah and that He had come back from the dead. In Acts, Chapter 2, Peter said:

Acts 2:23-24 NKJV
23 (This Jesus, who was) delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;
24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.

So Peter and the eleven were obliged to preach what was later recorded in the gospel accounts, namely that Jesus was the Christ, and that He had been raised from the dead and had been seen by the Apostles before He was taken up into heaven.

We need to bear in mind that the gospels were written probably twenty years after the crucifixion, whereas the events of Acts, Chapter 2, occurred only fifty days after the crucifixion. In fact, the word Pentecost means fiftieth and the feast of Pentecost commemorated the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai which occurred fifty days after the first Passover was observed just before the Jews left Egypt.

However, this gospel which was taught by the twelve was destined to undergo some major refinement with some additional revelation from God. The first step in this direction occurred on the road to Damascus when Saul of Tarsus met the Lord Jesus Christ and became the thirteenth apostle.

Immediately after his conversion, Paul started spreading the good news that Jesus had been raised from the dead and that Jesus was in fact the promised Messiah. Acts, Chapter 9, says that:

Acts 9:20-22 NKJV
20 Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.
21 Then all who heard were amazed, and said,"Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?"
22 But (Paul) increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

So we see that here at the first of Paul’s ministry, he was preaching the same thing that the other Apostles were preaching. But by the time Paul went on his first missionary journey up into the region of Galatia, we see indications of God’s special revelation to Paul. In Acts, Chapter 13, we read that in Antioch of Pisidia Paul went to the synagogue of the Jews and said:

Acts 13:23
23 From (David’s) seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior (whose name is Jesus)

So far this is exactly what the other Apostles were preaching. Paul goes on:

Acts 13:26
26 "Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent.

Again, Paul emphasizes the importance of the Jews in God’s kingdom program. Paul says, God is sending this message to you because the kingdom was promised to you. Paul reminds them that Jesus came as the Son of David and the Seed of Abraham. Then he says:

Acts 13:27-33
27 For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know (who Jesus was, and because they did not understand the voice of the prophets, even though the prophets are read every Sabbath, they have fulfilled the voice of the prophets by condemning Jesus.)
28 And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death.
29 Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb.
30 But God raised Him from the dead.
31 He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people.
32 And we declare to you glad tidings — that promise which was made to the fathers.
33 God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus . . .

Paul says, the prophets all spoke of the death, resurrection and ascension of the Messiah, and then Paul declares the good news that Jesus fulfilled all of these prophesies and was therefore to be accepted as the Messiah. But at this point Paul goes on to reveal some of the additional revelation that had been given to him by the Lord. He says:

Acts 13:38-39
38 Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins;
39 and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Here Paul says, you cannot be justified by doing good works because justification comes to those who believe. If you believe in Jesus and accept by faith that He was raised from the dead, your sins will be forgiven and you will be justified in the sight of God.

Please note that Paul never told these Jews to stop practicing the Law. He simply said that they could not be justified by keeping the Law. Paul knew that it was perfectly acceptable and appropriate at this point in history for the Jews to continue practicing the Law. After all, the Law of Moses was to be the Law of the Kingdom.

It was quite a different story, however, when Paul stepped outside of the synagogue in Antioch and started speaking to the Gentiles. Acts 13 does not record what Paul told the Gentiles, but we can surmise from his previous message in the synagogue that he also told them that justification comes to those who put their faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. But from Paul’s later letter to the Galatians, we can speculate that he might have warned them about the dangers of getting caught up in the rituals and ceremonies of the Law of Moses.

Whether he warned them about this about this at that time, we can’t say for sure, but we do know that he most certainly did warn them about the rituals in his letter to the Galatians. That letter was written some ten years after his first visit to Galatia and in that letter Paul said that if they did submit to circumcision, Christ would actually profit them nothing.

That is pretty strong language, but Paul didn’t actually start off his letter with that tone. He started his letter to the Galatians by simply emphasizing the basic truth of the gospel, saying:

Galatians 1:3-4 NKJV
3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,
4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

Paul says, Christ was not just falsely accused and killed by ungodly people, but He willingly offered Himself as the sacrifice for sin. He gave Himself for our sins so that He could deliver us from this present evil age.

Paul still had the age of the New Covenant Kingdom in mind and he wanted everyone to know that the believer’s hope of deliverance from this present age was directly related to their willingness to believe in the work of Christ upon the cross. Then Paul says:

Galatians 1:6-8 NKJV
6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,
7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

Paul knew that the believing Jews were continuing to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in connection with the practice of the Law of Moses. Consequently, Paul had to show why he was preaching a different gospel. So Paul said:

Galatians 1:11-12 NKJV
11 . . . I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.
12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 1:15-19 NKJV
15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace,
16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.
19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.

Paul says, I don’t preach the same gospel as the other apostles because the Lord Jesus told me to preach the gospel that I’m preaching. I did not receive my gospel from men, but I received it directly from Jesus Christ. After I was saved, I went to Arabia, and I never even saw Peter for three years.

What was Paul’s gospel? That Jesus gave Himself for our sins. Paul further defines his gospel in Chapter 2, saying:

Galatians 2:16 NKJV
16 . . . a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

Galatians 2:19-20 NKJV
19 For I, through the law, died to the law that I might live to God.
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Part of Paul’s revelation came when he saw the change that occurred within himself after he put his faith in Christ. At that point God explained to Paul the power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, that faith in the shed is what God requires for individual salvation and for establishment of the New Covenant Kingdom. This gospel message is not found in the Gospel of Matthew, nor is it found in any of the other gospel accounts. It was revealed to and through the Apostle Paul.

At the end of the Acts period, God set aside His offer to the Jews of the New Covenant Kingdom. At that point Paul began to reveal the program for the Church of our present age. We have not yet been delivered from this present evil age. We have not yet entered into the New Covenant Kingdom. Today God is simply offering individual salvation to all those who place their faith in the power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

Well, thank you for listening to Bible Study Time 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/