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No. 40Gospel
Matthew
The promised king has come
StatusEssential
Read28 chapters
DifficultyBeginner
Matthew 1 - 28 · Written in the second half of the first century AD · Written for a largely Jewish Christian readership, possibly in Syria
The Point
Everything Israel had been waiting for arrives in Jesus, and he sends his followers to every nation.
What This Book Is
The Gospel written with the Old Testament open, showing at every turn that Jesus is the king Israel was promised, and containing the Sermon on the Mount.
Overview
Matthew begins with a genealogy, which modern readers skip and first readers would have read closely. It runs from Abraham through David to Jesus, and it makes a claim before a single event is narrated: this man belongs to the promise.
The Gospel is built around five large blocks of teaching, a structure many readers see as deliberately echoing the five books of Moses. The first and most famous is the Sermon on the Mount, three chapters that begin with the beatitudes and go on to anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, enemies, giving, prayer, fasting, money, worry, and judging. It is the most concentrated block of Jesus' ethical teaching anywhere.
Matthew's signature move is the fulfilment quotation. Again and again he stops the narrative to say that this took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet. He is reading the whole Hebrew Bible as pointing here.
He is also the most pointed of the Gospel writers about religious hypocrisy. Chapter 23 is a sustained denunciation of leaders who tie up heavy burdens for others, clean the outside of the cup, and neglect the weightier matters of the law, which he names as justice, mercy, and faith.
The ending is famous and short. On a mountain in Galilee, some worship and some doubt, and both groups are sent. All authority has been given to him, so go and make disciples of all nations. The Gospel that opened with Israel's genealogy closes with the whole world in view.
Structure
- Chapters 1 to 4: BeginningsA genealogy, a birth, a baptism, and forty days in the wilderness.
- Chapters 5 to 7: The Sermon on the MountThe most concentrated block of Jesus' teaching.
- Chapters 8 to 20: MinistryHealings, parables of the kingdom, and growing conflict.
- Chapters 21 to 25: JerusalemThe entry, confrontations, and teaching about the end.
- Chapters 26 to 28: Cross and resurrectionThe last supper, the trial, the crucifixion, and a commission on a mountain.
Themes
FulfilmentThe kingdom of heavenRighteousnessDiscipleshipMissionAuthority
Why It Matters
Matthew is the bridge between the testaments, and it was placed first in the New Testament for good reason. It shows a Jewish Messiah whose mission was never meant to stop at Israel's borders. Its Sermon on the Mount has shaped ethics far beyond the church, and its closing commission has driven the missionary movement for two thousand years. For a reader who has just come through the Old Testament, this Gospel answers the question the prophets left hanging.
How to Read It
- Read the Sermon on the Mount, chapters 5 to 7, in one sitting and let it be as demanding as it is.
- Watch for the phrase that it might be fulfilled, and look up what is being quoted.
- Notice the five teaching blocks; each one ends with a phrase marking the transition.
- Read chapter 23 and chapter 25 together. Matthew will not let religion float free of how people are treated.
Key Verse
Matthew 28:19
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”
Did You Know?
- Matthew quotes the Old Testament more than any other Gospel, with dozens of explicit fulfilment formulas.
- The phrase kingdom of heaven, used throughout Matthew, appears in no other Gospel.
- The closing commission is spoken to a group that includes people the text says doubted.
Where to Start Reading
Matthew 5Matthew 13Matthew 28:16-20