OUTLINE OF THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

Matthew

By F.B.Meyer

The King of the House of David.

I. THE COMING OF THE KING, Matthew 1:1 to Matthew 4: 11

1. His Genealogy, Mat_1:1-17
2. His Birth and Early Life, Mat_1:18-25; Mat_2:1-23
3. His Baptism, Mat_3:1-17
4. His Temptation, Mat_4:1-11

II. PROCLAIMING THE KINGDOM, Matthew 4:12 to Matthew 16:12

1. The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry, Mat_4:12-25
2. The Sermon on the Mount, Mat_5:1-48; Mat_6:1-34; Mat_7:1-29
3. Miracles of Healing, Mat_8:1-34; Mat_9:1-35
4. Sending Forth of the Twelve, Matthew 9:36 to Matthew 12:42
5. Discourses and Kingdom Parables, Matthew 11:1 to Matthew 16:12

III. FACING REJECTION, Matthew 16:13-25:46

1. Peter’s Confession-Rejection Announced, Mat_16:13-28
2. The Transfiguration, Mat_17:1-9
3. Questions, Discourses and Parables of Judgment, Matthew 17:10 to Matthew 25:46

IV. ENDURING THE CROSS, Mat_26:1-75; Mat_27:1-66

1. Plots of Foes and Devotion of Friends, Mat_26:1-16
2. The Last Supper and the Agony in the Garden, Mat_26:17-46
3. The Betrayal, Mat_26:47-56
4. The Jewish and Roman Trials, Mat_26:57-75; Mat_27:1-25
5. The Crucifixion and Burial, Mat_27:26-66

V. CONQUERING DEATH, Mat_28:1-20

1. The Visit of the Women to the Empty Tomb, Mat_28:1-8
2. The Risen Christ, Mat_28:9-10
3. The Testimony of the Soldiers, Mat_28:11-15
4. The Great Commission, Mat_28:16-20

INTRODUCTION

There is no reason to doubt that this Gospel was written by Matthew. It presents the narrative of our Lord’s life from the standpoint of the pious Jew; and the evident design of the writer is to show how completely and continually our Lord fulfilled the Old Testament Scriptures. No other Gospel contains so many quotations from the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms. In it the predominant aspect of our Lord’s character and work is the Messianic. He was great David’s Greater Son. The keyword of the book is “Behold your King.” As King, His line is traced through the kingly race. As King, He proclaims the kingdom of heaven. As King, He promulgates the laws, describes the subjects, and announces the rewards of the Kingdom. When describing His own action at the last, when He sits on His throne and all nations are gathered before Him, He speaks of Himself as King, Mat_25:40. It was on His avowal of kingship that He was condemned to die. From every viewpoint this Gospel is one of the most precious documents in the world.
{e-Sword Note: The following material was presented at the end of Matthew in the printed edition}

REVIEW QUESTIONS ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

Outline
(a) What are the main divisions of this Gospel?
(b) In which divisions are the discourses and parables of Jesus recorded?

Introduction
(c) From what standpoint is this Gospel written?
(d) What is the purpose of the writer?
(e) How does it differ from the other Gospels?
(f) What is its keyword?

Matthew 1-10
Each question applies to the paragraph of corresponding number in the Comments.
1. Why does this Gospel open with the genealogy of Jesus?
2. What message did the angel bring to Joseph?
3. How did the chief priests and scribes know where Christ should be born? Why did the Wise-Men disregard Herod’s command?
4. How does the coming and return of the Wise-Men illustrate divine providence?
5. On the death of Herod, where did Joseph and Mary make their home?
6. What work was John the Baptist sent to perform?
7. Why was Jesus baptized?
8. What was the meaning of each of the three temptations of Jesus?
9. What is meant by “the kingdom of heaven?”
10. Who were the first disciples?
11. How may the Beatitudes be classified?
12. What did Jesus declare His disciples to be?
13. What was Jesus’ relation to the Law and the Prophets?
14. How did Jesus enlarge the application of the Law?
15. What is the true motive for right living?
16. What is Jesus’ teaching regarding alms? Regarding prayer?
17. What is the condition of divine forgiveness?
18. How can we lay up treasures in heaven?
19. Why is anxiety about food and raiment wrong?
20. What cautions does Jesus give about judging others? What are the resources of a Christian?
21. How is our character revealed?
22. What was the effect of Jesus’ teaching upon the multitude?
23. What spiritual truths do Jesus’ miracles of cleansing and healing illustrate?
24. What did Jesus say of the centurion’s faith? How did Peter’s wife’s mother show gratitude to Jesus for her healing? What prophet foretold Christ’s healing ministry?
25. What did Jesus require of those who would be His disciples?
26. What miracle did Jesus perform in the country of the Gergesenes?
27. How did Jesus show His authority to forgive sins?
28. Whom did Jesus call to discipleship from the receipt of custom? With what question did some of the disciples of John the Baptist come to Jesus?
29. How did Jesus show His power over death in the home of Jairus?
30. To what agency did the Pharisees attribute Jesus’ power to work miracles? Why?
31. For what did Jesus tell His disciples to pray?
32. What instructions did they receive as they started out on their first missionary tour?
33. What warnings were given them?
34. What encouragement did Jesus afford them in the midst of persecution?
35. What supreme claim did Jesus make upon His disciples?

Matthew 11-21
Each question applies to the paragraph of corresponding number in the Comments.
36. On what errand did John the Baptist send some of the disciples to Jesus?
37. What did Jesus say of His forerunner?
38. Why did Jesus pronounce judgment upon Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum? What wonderful promises follow these declarations of judgment?
39. How did Jesus defend His disciples when the Pharisees accused them of breaking the Sabbath?
40. Of what are the “bruised reed” and “smoking flax” types?
41. What did Jesus declare to be the unpardonable sin? What did he say about idle words?
42. What was Jesus’ reply to the sign-seeking Pharisees? What constitutes kinship to Jesus?
43. What are the leading facts in the parable of the sower?
44. What explanation did Jesus give of this parable?
45. What other parable about a grain field did Jesus tell? What was the parable about a mustard seed? leaven? In what respect are these parables alike?
46. How did Jesus explain the parable of the tares?
47. What other parables of the Kingdom did Jesus relate? What additional teaching do they contain?
48. Why were the townspeople of Jesus offended at Him?
49. What events led to the execution of John the Baptist?
50. What was Jesus’ purpose in miraculously feeding the multitude?
51. What impression did Jesus’ walking on the sea make upon the disciples?
52. How did the scribes and Pharisees make the command of God of none effect by their traditions?
53. What did Jesus teach about defilement?
54. What miracle of healing did Jesus perform in the coasts of Tyre and Sidon?
55. What differences are to be noted between the feeding of the four thousand, and the feeding of the five thousand?
56. How did Jesus answer those who sought a sign? What did he mean by the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees?
57. What is the rock on which Christ builds His Church?
58. What did Jesus lay down as the terms of discipleship?
59. Who appeared with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration? What proposal did Peter make?
60. What miracle followed immediately after the Transfiguration?
61. How did Jesus respond to the demand for the Temple tax?
62. Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? What sacrifices may well be made in seeking eternal life?
63. Whom did Jesus come to save? To whom is Jesus’ presence promised?
64. What does the parable of the debtors teach about forgiveness?
65. What did Christ teach about marriage, divorce and family life?
66. What did the rich young ruler lack?
67. What did Jesus teach about riches?
68. What is the teaching of the parable of the laborers in the vineyard?
69. What teaching was occasioned by the ambition of James and John?
70. What miracle did Christ perform when visiting Jericho? What prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem?
71. Why did Jesus cast the traffickers out of the Temple?
72. Why did Jesus sentence the fig-tree to barrenness?
73. What was Jesus’ purpose in telling the parable of the two sons?
74. How did Jesus apply the Scripture about the stone rejected by the builders?

Matthew 22-28
Each question applies to the paragraph of corresponding number in the Comments.
75. What is the present-day application of the parable of the wedding feast?
76. How did the Pharisees attempt to make difficulty for Jesus with the question about tribute? How did he discomfit them?
77. How did Jesus show the Sadducees that the Pentateuch contains evidence of a future life?
78. How did Jesus answer the question of the Pharisees with regard to the great commandment of the Law? What question did he put to them in turn?
79. What did Jesus teach the disciples about greatness?
80. What indictments did Jesus bring against the Pharisees?
81. How did Jesus show His compassion for the city that rejected Him?
82. What signs did Jesus announce to His disciples as foreshadowing the fall of Jerusalem and the end of the world?
83. What special warning did he give them?
84. What did he teach with reference to His second coming?
85. Why did he urge watchfulness?
86. By what parable did he emphasize this duty?87. What is the teaching of the parable of the talents?
88. What account did Christ give of the judgment of “the nations?”
89. What was Jesus’ promise regarding the woman who anointed Him in Bethany?
90. What agreement did Judas make with the chief priests? How was the purpose of Judas disclosed at the Passover?
91. What ordinance did Jesus institute on this Passover night? How did he rebuke the self-confidence of Peter?92. What prayer did Jesus offer in the garden of Gethsemane?
93. How did Judas betray Jesus?
94. On what ground did the high priest declare Jesus worthy of death?
95. What led Peter to deny Jesus?
96. What did the chief priests do with the money that Judas gave back to them?
97. What effort did Pilate make to release Jesus?
98. What pretence of innocence did Pilate publicly make? How was Jesus treated by the soldiers to whom he was delivered?
99. How were the following concerned in the Crucifixion: Simon of Cyrene? the soldiers? the Jewish leaders? the thieves who were also crucified?
100. What notable miraculous events attended the crucifixion of Jesus?
101. By whom was the body of Jesus laid in the tomb?
102. Who were the first to learn of the Resurrection?
103. What dealings did the chief priests have with the soldiers who had guarded the tomb?
104. What was the last commission which Jesus gave to His disciples?

Matthew

By William MacDonald.

 Believer’s Bible Commentary.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

Introduction
“In grandness of conception and in the power with which a mass of material is subordinated to great ideas no writing in either Testament, dealing with a historical theme, is to be compared with Matthew.”

—Theodor Zahn.

I. Unique Place in the Canon
Matthew’s Gospel is the perfect bridge between the Old and the New Testaments. Its very first words throw us back to the forefather of the OT people of God, Abraham, and to the first great king of Israel, David. In its emphasis, strong Jewish flavor, its many quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures, and its position at the head of the NT books, Matthew is the logical place to start the Christian message to the world.
Matthew has long held this first position in the order of the four Gospels. This is because until very modern times, it was universally believed to be the first Gospel written. Also, Matthew’s clear, orderly style made it most suitable for congregational reading. Hence it was the most popular Gospel, sometimes vying for that place with John.
It is not necessary to believe that Matthew was the first Gospel written in order to be orthodox. However, the earliest Christians were nearly all of Jewish extraction, and there were many thousands of them. Meeting the needs of the first Christians first does seem quite logical.

II. Authorship
The external evidence is ancient and universal that Matthew the tax collector, also called Levi, wrote the First Gospel. Since he was not a prominent member of the apostolic band it would be strange to attribute the First Gospel to him if indeed he had nothing to do with it.
Besides the ancient document known as the “Didache” (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), Justin Martyr, Dionysius of Corinth, Theophilus of Antioch, and Athenagoras, the Athenian quote the Gospel as authentic. Eusebius, the church historian, quotes Papias as saying that “Matthew composed the Logia in the Hebrew language, and everyone interpreted them as he was able.” Irenaeus, Pantaenus, and Origen basically agree with this. “Hebrew” is widely thought to mean the dialect of Aramaic used by the Hebrews in our Lord’s time, as the word is used in the NT. But what are the “Logia”? Usually this Greek word means “oracles,” as the OT contains the oracles of God. It cannot mean that in Papias’ statement. There are three main views on his statement: (1) It refers to the Gospel of Matthew as such. That is, Matthew wrote an Aramaic edition of his Gospel especially to win the Jews to Christ and edify Hebrew Christians, and only later did a Greek edition appear. (2) It refers to sayings of Jesus only, which later became incorporated into his Gospel. (3) It refers to testimonia, i.e., citations of OT Scriptures to show that Jesus is the Messiah. Views 1 and 2 are more likely than view 3.
The Greek of Matthew does not read like a mere translation, but such a widespread tradition (with no early dissent) must have some factual basis. Tradition says that Matthew preached for fifteen years in Palestine and then left to evangelize in foreign parts. It is possible that about a.d. 45 he left behind for the Jews who had accepted Jesus as their Messiah a first draft of his Gospel in Aramaic (or just the discourses of Christ), and later made a Greek edition for universal use. A similar thing was done by Matthew’s contemporary, Josephus. This Jewish historian made an Aramaic first draft of his Jewish Wars and then the final form of the book in Greek.
The internal evidence of the First Gospel does fit well with a devout Jew who loved the OT and was gifted as a careful writer and editor. As a civil servant of Rome, Matthew would have to be proficient in both the language of his people (Aramaic) and of the ruling authorities. (The Romans used Greek, not Latin, in the East.) The numerical details, parables regarding money, and the monetary terms all fit in with a tax collector. So does the concise, orderly style. Goodspeed, a nonconservative scholar, accepted the Matthaean authorship of this Gospel partly from this corroborating internal evidence.
In spite of such universal external evidence and favorable internal evidence, most nonconservative scholars reject the traditional view that Matthew the tax collector wrote this book. They do so on two main grounds.
First of all, assuming that Mark was the first Gospel written (taught as “Gospel truth” in many circles today), how could an apostle and eyewitness use so much of Mark’s material (93% of Mark occurs also in other Gospels)? To answer this, first of all, it is not proven that Mark was first. Ancient testimony says Matthew was first, and since the early Christians were nearly all Jewish, this makes a great deal of sense. But even if we accept the so-called Marcan priority (and many conservatives do so), Matthew could have recognized that Mark’s work was largely the reminiscences of the dynamic Simon Peter, Matthew’s fellow-apostle, as early church tradition maintains (see Introduction to Mark).
The second argument against the book being by Matthew (or any eyewitness) is that it lacks vivid details. Mark, who no one claims witnessed Christ’s ministry, has colorful details that suggest he was there. How could an eyewitness write so matter-of-factly? Perhaps the personality of a tax collector explains it quite well. In order to have room for more of our Lord’s discourses, Levi could have cut down on needless details. This would especially be so if Mark wrote first and Matthew saw that Peter’s first-hand reminiscences were well represented.

III. Date
If the widespread belief that Matthew made an Aramaic first edition of his Gospel (or at least of the sayings of Jesus) is so, a date for that of a.d. 45, fifteen years after the Ascension, would fit in with ancient tradition. He could have brought out the fuller, canonical Gospel in Greek in 50 or 55, or even later.
The view that the Gospel must have been written after the destruction of Jerusalem (a.d. 70) rests largely on disbelief in Christ’s ability to predict that future event in detail, and other rationalistic theories that ignore or deny divine inspiration.

IV. Background and Theme
Matthew was a young man when Jesus called him. A Jew by birth, and a tax collector by training and practice, he forsook all to follow Christ. One of his many compensations was that he became one of the twelve apostles. Another was that he was chosen as the writer of what we know as the First Gospel. It is generally believed that Matthew was the same as Levi (Mar_2:14; Luk_5:27).
In his Gospel, Matthew sets out to show that Jesus is the long-expected Messiah of Israel, the only lawful Claimant to the throne of David.
The book does not profess to be a complete narrative of the life of Christ. It begins with His genealogy and early years, then jumps to the beginning of His public ministry when He was about thirty. Guided by the Holy Spirit, Matthew selects those aspects of the Savior’s life and ministry which attest Him as God’s Anointed One (that is what Messiah and Christ mean). The book moves toward a climax: the trial, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus. And in that climax, of course, is laid the foundation for man’s salvation. That is why the book is called a Gospel—not so much because it sets forth the way by which sinful people may receive salvation, but rather because it describes the sacrificial work of Christ by which salvation was made possible.
The Believers Bible Commentary is not intended to be exhaustive or technical, but rather to stimulate independent study and meditation. And most of all it is aimed at creating in the reader’s heart an intense longing for the return of the King.
So even I, and with a heart more burning,
So even I, and with a hope more sweet,
Groan for the hour, O Christ! of Thy returning,
Faint for the flaming of Thine advent feet.

—from St. Paul, by F. W. H. Myers

OUTLINE

I. GENEALOGY AND BIRTH OF THE MESSIAH-KING (Matthew 1:1 to 25)
II. EARLY YEARS OF THE MESSIAH-KING (Matthew 2:1-23)
III. PREPARATIONS FOR THE MESSIAH’S MINISTRY AND HIS INAUGURATION (Matthew 3:1 to Matthew 4)
IV. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE KINGDOM (Matthew 5:1 to Matthew 7)
V. THE MESSIAH’S MIRACLES OF POWER AND GRACE, AND VARYING REACTIONS TO THEM (Matthew 8:1 to Matthew 9:34)
VI. APOSTLES OF THE MESSIAH-KING SENT FORTH TO ISRAEL (Matthew 9:35 to Matthew 10:42)
VII. INCREASING OPPOSITION AND REJECTION (Matthew 11:1 to  Matthew  12)
VIII. THE KING ANNOUNCES A NEW INTERIM FORM OF THE KINGDOM DUE TO ISRAEL’S REJECTION (Matthew 13:1 to 58)
IX. THE MESSIAH’S UNWEARIED GRACE MET BY MOUNTING HOSTILITY (Matthew 14:1 to Matthew 16:12)
X. THE KING PREPARES HIS DISCIPLES (Matthew 16:13:1 to Matthew 17:27)
XI. THE KING INSTRUCTS HIS DISCIPLES (Matthew 18:1 to Matthew 20)
XII. PRESENTATION AND REJECTION OF THE KING (Matthew  21:1 to Matthew 23)
XIII. THE KING’S OLIVET DISCOURSE (Matthew 24:1 to Matthew 25:46)
XIV. THE KING’S PASSION AND DEATH (Matthew 26:1 to Matthew 27:66)
XV. THE KING’S TRIUMPH (Matthew 28:1 to 20)

Please pray the Holy Spirit-The Paraclete will use these sermons and studies to bring many to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

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