SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/18/2019
11:52 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Intro to Matthew”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
Message of the
verse: The
record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of
Abraham:”
I want to briefly write about the authorship
of the book of Matthew. I believe that
most of you understand what Matthew’s way of making a living was before Jesus Christ
called him to be one of His disciples.
Matthew was a tax-collector for the Romans and to be a tax-collector
during the time period that he lived in was one of the lowest things that a
Jewish man could do as they were only required to give to Rome the amount that
was suppose to go to them and anything above that amount they kept for
themselves which made many tax-collectors very rich.
As mentioned Matthew who was called “Levi”
was a tax-collector, but we do not know what kind of a person that he was
before Jesus called him. Jesus had quite
a mix of disciples that He had called and I am sure that Simon the zealot, who
hated Rome and Matthew probably, had a difficult time getting along at first.
Being a tax-collector, and being a
Jew meant that Matthew could not have any association with the Jewish religious
system, so with that said it is hard to believe that Matthew had any religious
background.
John MacArthur writes “Matthew was particularly
modest in writing his gospel account. He
always refers to himself in the third person and nowhere speaks of himself as
the author. We know of his authorship
because his name is attached to all early copies of the manuscripts and because
the early church Fathers unanimously attested him to be the book’s author.
“It is obvious from the text itself
that Matthew wrote this gospel before the destruction of Jerusalem and the
Temple in A. D. 70. Apart from that
general dating, it is impossible to be dogmatic as to a specific year.”
The Message
MacArthur
writes “The first four books of the New Testament report the same gospel
account, but from four distinct perspectives.
They give the same message with differing but perfectly harmonious
emphases. Matthew presents Jesus as the
sovereign, whereas Mark presents Him in the extreme opposite role as
servant. Luke presents Him as the Son of
Man, whereas John presents Him as the Son of God. The same Jesus is shown to be both sovereign
God and servant Man.”
Now there are some things in John
MacArthur’s comments on the message of Matthew that I want to quote because
even though I knew the facts that he is presenting I did not remember where the
details of these events were found in the Old Testament.
“In presenting the sovereignty of
Jesus, Matthew begins his gospel with the genealogy of the Lord—going back to
Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people, through King David, Israel’s model
king. In presenting Jesus’ servanthood,
Mark gives no genealogy at all, because a servant’s lineage is irrelevant. In presenting Jesus as the Son of Man, Luke
traces His genealogy back to the first man, Adam. In presenting Jesus as the divine Son of God,
John gives no human genealogy or birth and childhood narratives. He opens his gospel by giving, as it were,
Jesus’ divine genealogy: ‘In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’ (John
1:1).
“The message of the book of Matthew
centers on the theme of Jesus’ kingship.
Just as virtually every paragraph of the gospel of John points to
something of Christ’s deity, so virtually every paragraph of Matthew points to
something of His kingship.
“Matthew presents the Messiah King who is revealed, the King who is rejected, and the King who will return.
Jesus is painted in royal colors in this gospel as in none of the
others. His ancestry is traced from the
royal line of Israel; his birth is dreaded by a jealous earthly king; the magi
bring the infant Jesus royal gifts from the east; and John the Baptist heralds
the King and proclaims that His kingdom is at hand. Even the temptations in the wilderness climax
with Satan offering Jesus the kingdoms of this world. The Sermon on the Mount
is the manifesto of the King, the miracles are His royal credentials, and many
of the parables portray the mysteries of His kingdom. Jesus identifies Himself with the king’s son
in a parable and makes a royal entry into Jerusalem. While facing the cross He predicts His future
reign, and He claims dominion over the angels in heaven. His last words are that all authority has
been given to Him in both heaven and earth (28:18).
The subject that I wanted to look at in this SD will have
to wait as I got a little mixed up as to where I read about it while reading
through this first part of MacArthur’s commentary. I will give a hint at this time as to what I
am talking about and that is that when we look at the genealogy of Jesus in
Matthew’s gospel and compare it from the genealogy of Luke’s gospel there is a
difference, and the reason for that difference is what I want to discuss. We will continue looking at some more of
MacArthur’s commentary on “The Message” of Matthew in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful
that the gospel written by Matthew shows that Jesus Christ is King, as He is surely
King in my life.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to serve my King in what I do today.
The short quotation from “Love
in Action” comes from Genesis 1:31.
Then God saw everything that He had
made, and indeed it was very good.
Genesis 1:31
11/18/2019 12:46 PM
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