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Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®
To Dorothy and our children: Kate and Graham Matt and Carla Nathan Elizabeth and Peter
The King teaches about the end and its timing 82
Matthew 24:1–44 Day
The King teaches about the end in parables 84
Matthew 24:45—26:2
SOME MATTERS FOR GROUP DISCUSSION OR 109 PERSONAL REFLECTION
Days The matter of relatives
1–4
Days The matter of decision
5–10
Days The matter of planning 115 11–16
Days The matter of faith 118 17–22
Days The matter of seasons 120 23–28
Days The matter of obligation and freedom 123 29–34
Days The matter to consider 126 35–40
INTRODUCTION
When we read Matthew’s Gospel, we see that Jesus often drew aside from his busy life to reflect on how he was fulfilling the ministry his Father had given to him. At the beginning of his ministry, he even went into the wilderness for 40 days to fast and pray about his calling to be the Son of God and Servant of the Lord. We may be surprised to read that it was when he was full of the Holy Spirit that the Spirit led him into this activity, and that he was sorely tempted by the devil there. However, we also learn that he emerged from the experience in the power of the Spirit—a great blessing to the people of Galilee and Jerusalem, and ultimately to the whole world.
Many Christians today have followed the example of the Lord Jesus by drawing aside in order to reflect on how they are taking up their cross and how they are being a blessing to people in the power of the Spirit. Some churches suggest that the season of Lent is a good time for Christians to reflect on these matters. The 40 days of Lent begin on Ash Wednesday and end on Easter Saturday (Sundays are not included), and the readings, comments and prayers in this book have been designed for that period (though they are equally true and useful at other times).
The pattern of the daily studies in this book includes a Bible reading, a comment on the reading and a suggested application that is sometimes part of the comment but always embodied in the prayer. In the last section of the book, there are some matters to think about personally or to discuss in a group situation. There are seven matters to consider, matching the seven weeks of Lent. Together we will be going through all 28 chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. The suggested daily passages are likely to be a little longer than in some popular devotionals. While I think that reading small portions of Scripture is obviously helpful in some ways, I also think that these longer readings will give us more of the intent and purpose of the Gospel writer. Ultimately I hope you come away from the 40 readings with a greater understanding of the purposeful journey Jesus undertook to complete his earthly mission, and with a greater understanding of the path God wants you, me and all of his followers to take.
I pray that, as you read, reflect, pray over and practise what you learn from Matthew, the tax collector who became a disciple of the Lord Jesus, the book will assist you in the Way.
—Reg Piper
MATTHEW AND HIS GOSPEL
AN OVERVIEW OF MATTHEW’S GOSPEL
• The King is prepared for service (1:1—4:11)
• The King serves throughout Galilee (4:12—16:12)
• The King turns his mind to Jerusalem (16:13—20:34)
• The King enters Zion (21:1—25:46)
• The King is crowned with glory (26:1—28:20)
THE WRITER OF THE GOSPEL
Matthew, whose name means ‘gift of the Lord’, was very conscious of being a tax collector who left his booth to follow Jesus, the friend of ‘tax collectors and sinners’ (9:9–13). He probably wrote his Gospel between 50 and 70 AD. Since his Gospel was written in Greek, his readers were likely Greek speaking, though primarily Jews. Many elements point to Jewish readership, such as his concern for the fulfilment of the Old Testament and his lack of explanation of Jewish customs. However, Matthew knows that the gospel is also ultimately for all the world, so he includes the coming of the Magi from the East in his prologue, the healings of a Canaanite’s daughter and a Roman Centurion’s servant during Jesus’ ministry, and the command of the Lord Jesus to make disciples of all nations as the epilogue.
HIS AUDIENCE
Assuming Jewish Christians were his primary audience, we can easily see how they might need special encouragement. They could be socially isolated, harassed and even persecuted by fellow Jews and sometimes by Jewish authorities. As well, the general population of the Roman Empire did not care to distinguish between the Jewish Christians and other Jews, and so they could find themselves being further disadvantaged in a double prejudice. Moreover, as the Gentile Christians became more dominant in the church, even in the church Jewish Christians could find themselves despised by Gentile believers as ‘weaker’ brothers.
HIS MESSAGE
Matthew uses the outline of Mark’s Gospel and adds birth stories at the beginning and resurrection events at the end. A major theme that he develops as Jesus moves from Galilee to Jerusalem is that Jesus fulfils the Old Testament as the Christ, the Son of the living God who is also God’s King for all the world. Some have also suggested that Matthew presents the gospel as the new Law and Jesus as the new and greater Moses for the Jews and all nations. They point to five major discourses paralleling Moses’ five books of the Law and Deuteronomy 18. Jesus feeding a large crowd in a remote place like Moses (14:13–21), John the Baptist denying he is ‘the Prophet’ and the rumours that Jesus is (John 1:21, 45; 5:46; 6:14) and Peter’s preaching (Acts 3:22–26) are additional pieces of evidence supporting this view. This interpretation will influence how we understand Matthew 28:18–20 on Day 40.
THE KING IS PREPARED FOR SERVICE
1. The King enters the world (1:1–25)
2. The King is visited by Gentiles (2:1–12)
3. The King is called out of Egypt (2:13–23)
4. The King is declared God’s son and servant (3:1–17)
5. The King is tempted by Satan (4:1–11)
THE INFANCY OF JESUS
Even when Jesus was a baby and humanly speaking could not influence anything surrounding his birth, it was still obvious that God directed events. God was working extraordinary miracles and explaining what Jesus’ mission would be.
God began to fulfil Scripture by setting the scene in Jesus’ genealogy. Then, in Jesus’ virgin conception, birthplace, exodus from Egypt and residence in Nazareth, Matthew notes that Scripture is fulfilled. God directly intervened by sending his angel to Joseph, warning by dreams, guiding by a star and causing the virgin birth by the Holy Spirit. God even named him Jesus so that his life’s mission is clear: ‘he will save his people from their sins’ (1:21).
JESUS’ TEMPTATION BY THE DEVIL
Israel faced hard times under brutal Roman rule. They yearned for their promised Christ, whom they thought was a Son of David who would lead a rebellion and bring liberty to them. Why did Israel hope that? They hoped for that ultimately because the devil had persuaded them to view God’s Christ as the one who would achieve their vision by force. When Jesus was baptised by John, God announced, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased’ (3:17). Jesus understood this as a word from God that declared him as God’s King of Psalm 2 and the suffering Servant of Isaiah 42. His kingly service was to ‘give his life as a ransom for many’ (Matthew 20:28b) by taking up his cross for the sin of his people and being raised on the third day to an eternal kingdom.
When the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, the essence of that temptation would be to accede to the people’s request and be their type of Christ rather than God’s. This temptation came at the very beginning of his ministry and was to be resisted till the very end on the cross (27:41–43).
We read that he obeyed God to the bitter and joy-filled end, and so God’s gospel of Jesus Christ is good news for all sinful humanity. Now believers come under God’s grace and enter an eternal kingdom instead of dying along with the temporal kingdoms of this world, like Herod’s and Rome’s.
THE KING ENTERS THE WORLD DAY 1
READ MATTHEW 1:1–25
Matthew opens his Gospel with the Jewish male, and thus legal, ancestry of Jesus. He then follows it with the supernatural birth of the Saviour. From the beginning of his Gospel, Matthew expounds the person and work of Jesus.
Firstly, Matthew introduces us to a theme to which he will often return: Jesus is the Son of David who is the Christ. Matthew traces Jesus’ genealogy from Abraham to David, then to the exile in Babylon, then to Jesus being the Christ. He does this by the male line of Joseph because the Jews traced their descent using the father’s side of the family. Matthew tells us that the angel addresses Joseph (Jesus’ stepfather, his legal father) as a ‘son of David’ (1:20), as by lineage he is. Matthew will record Jesus as likewise being referred to as ‘Son of David’ many times, including by Jesus himself (22:41–46), throughout his Gospel. Jesus, in the way he enters into the world, fulfils God’s promise in the Scriptures of a special Son of David.
Secondly, he tells us that Jesus was born by Mary without a man. This was revealed by the angel of the Lord to Joseph. There was within her womb, through the activity of the Holy Spirit, a miraculous conception, and so Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah 7:14. He was not just a sign that God is with his people and would act to destroy Israel’s enemies, Syria and Ephraim, as it was for King Ahaz. Rather, he will save in an all-powerful and eternal way. Matthew says Jesus is ‘God with us’ (Matthew 1:23). He is applying the prophecy, not as a sign of God’s activity, but as God himself come in the person of Jesus Christ.
Thirdly, Matthew tells us that Jesus’ salvation has to do with forgiveness of sins. Every time Jesus was called the Son of David by the people, there was some hope of healing expressed or some longing that he might conquer and oust the Romans,
but the angel announces that Jesus’ salvation is far greater. He was to be given the name Jesus, ‘because he will save his people from their sins’ (1:21). He was a healer. He was a leader, but the nature of his salvation remains eternal and exercised before the righteous Judge of all the earth. He came from God to save God’s people from their sins. Why, even in Jesus’ genealogy we have a prostitute (Rahab), a patriarch soliciting his daughter-in-law (Judah), and a king (David) who had a man killed after committing adultery with that man’s wife! Even in Jesus’ God-appointed line, sin abounds. We desperately need salvation from sin.
So Matthew begins his Gospel! He begins with a lineage and the most extraordinary miracle of the birth of Jesus to a virgin in order to introduce us to the God who has come in person and will save his people from their sins. Jesus is the fulfilment of all the hopes of Israel and (as we shall see in the next study) of all the hopes of the nations as well. God’s King has come in Jesus Christ!
A prayer
Almighty God, thank you: for sending your Son into a world troubled by sin, for sending an angel to herald his birth, and for fulfilling the promises of your prophets. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you came to save us from our sins. Help us to, like Joseph, believe your word and embrace the Saviour. Amen.
