Understanding Matthew’s Gospel

MEMORY SELECTION: “Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” —Matthew 4:23

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Matthew 1:1-17; 4:23-25; 9:9-13

THE word Gospel, according to Strong’s Concordance, means good news. And Matthew, together with the other writers who gave an account of our Lord Jesus’ earthly ministry, provides the child of God with a profile of the Redeemer’s life and purpose, which was the good news that God had provided a corresponding price for sin and that in due time the whole world of mankind would be given an opportunity to gain life under the provisions of Christ’s millennial kingdom.

That indeed was good news, and Matthew was especially blessed by God to have had the privilege of bearing testimony to the only perfect life which had ever been lived. Matthew was a Jew, whose former name was Levi—a publican, one of those unpopular collectors of tolls and customs—who left all to follow the Master.

Matthew wrote his Gospel in Aramaic, the language of the Jews at the time, and later translated it into Greek, which became the language of the New Testament Scriptures. In addition to its original composition being in Aramaic, it is also noted that particular attention is given to the messianic prophecies and the manner in which they were fulfilled by Jesus, no doubt for the benefit of the Jews. He often quotes Hebrew scriptures from the Old Testament and shows how they have been fulfilled by Jesus as the Messiah.

Although Matthew’s Gospel does not follow any strict chronological order, being arranged instead in a topical manner, it magnifies the Gospel of Christ’s kingdom. He records the events as they occurred in Galilee and the final events in Jerusalem, together with Jesus’ parables and discourses. The Gospel is generally believed to have been completed around the year A.D. 41.

Matthew begins his account by tracing the genealogy of Jesus according to the lineage of Joseph, the husband of Jesus’ mother, Mary. He then tells of the visit of the magi, the flight into Egypt, and the slaughter of the babes in Bethlehem by Herod. The ministry of John the Baptist is then given, along with Jesus’ baptism, anointing, and temptation by Satan.

Jesus’ ministry and the good news of the kingdom then account for the prime message in this Gospel, even as the words of our memory selection indicate. For Jesus indeed went throughout all the land of Galilee preaching that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The Gospel writer then proceeds to give us the most complete record that is in the Bible of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount.

In conjunction with his witness work, the Great Physician performs many miracles by “healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” This helps to spread his fame throughout all the land. Matthew not only provides us with an account of these miracles but also tells about the feeding of first the 5,000 and later the 4,000.

The account of Jesus’ ministry includes many parables and their explanation—the Marriage Feast, the Ten Virgins, the Talents, and the Sheep and the Goats. We learn how our Lord organized the work of his ministry by sending his apostles out in pairs so that the presentation of the truth might be most effective. And from Matthew we are given an account of Jesus’ scathing denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees. He also tells us about Judas’s suicide.

In the closing passages of this Gospel we catch a glimpse of Jesus’ post-resurrection meeting with his disciples in Galilee, when he said to them, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world [age].”—Matt. 28:18-20

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