How To Read The New Testament

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All right, if you would open your Bibles. First book in the New Testament, so if you're new to the

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Bible. It's the very first one. It's a little white page between the

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Old and the New normally. So the very beginning of the New Testament, the Gospel according to Matthew, the

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Gospel according to Matthew. Just going to read verse 1.

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Here now the word of the living and the true God, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

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As far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray together. Father, I pray that you'd bless the proclamation of your word today.

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I pray that you bless the teaching. I pray that you'd allow me as a shepherd of your people to be faithful to teach in a way that would encourage, that would bless, that would challenge.

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Lord, that would instruct us, help us to handle your word in a way that's glorifying to you.

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And I do pray that by your spirit today you would lead and guide us. And I pray that you get the preacher out of the way in Jesus name.

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Amen. So the Gospel according to Matthew, as I said today as we opened up, this particular

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Gospel is the Gospel of the four Gospels. There's three synoptic and of course the

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Gospel according to John, very different. But in the synoptics, the Gospel according to Matthew, Matthew is saturated with the

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Old Testament. It is saturated. And I pointed out two things and I want you to just really hold on to this.

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Get this and you'll really kind of understand what I'm saying needs to be behind us. It's not just the explicit reciting of a particular passage from the

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Old Testament. There is that and it is through the Gospel according to Matthew.

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It really starts in the first chapter here with a quotation from Isaiah, but it is not simply the direct reciting of a passage from the

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Old Testament, but it's also with the imagery and the understanding of the Old Testament and backgrounds behind it.

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Matthew is soaked in Scripture. It's soaked in Scripture. And so my goal in doing

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Matthew as our first Gospel at Apologia Church has taken us many years to get where we are.

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My goal has been to make sure that we not only understand the Gospel of the kingdom and the message of Jesus and the historical narrative of the

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Lord Jesus, what happened to him, but I want us to understand the Old Testament revelation.

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So we could have chosen to do Mark and it would have been wonderful. We could have chosen, of course, to do John. But Matthew we chose because we wanted to make sure our church, as we were planting a church, we had the opportunity to not only keep our focus on the

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Lord Jesus Christ, but also have a focus on what brought all this into being, what made it a reality.

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And here's what I want us to understand. You remember a moment ago, I said if you're new to the Bible, it's the Gospel according to Matthew.

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There's usually a little white page between the Old Testament and New Testament. It's that first Gospel in our listing of the books in our

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New Testaments today. Here's what we have to understand. You have to think about the

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New Testament or, say, the Gospel according to, say, Matthew like a movie, a great story, an epic.

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You have to think about it as something that is a narrative that comes to a climax. It's not a stunted story.

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Now, some of you guys are as old as me or older, so you remember those old films like Ben -Hur.

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Remember Ben -Hur? How long was Ben -Hur? Hours, right? How long was it?

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You were there. No. I'm just kidding. What is it like? It's like four hours, right?

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Do you remember, I remember being a kid and my parents had this massive VHS collection and video library and said all the old movies and certainly some inappropriate movies

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I should have never seen as a child, but lots of movies. And I remember Ben -Hur and that was the movie that actually, it was really the only understanding

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I had of a person named Jesus was from those old films that I was just bored and I was going through films and I saw.

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But don't you remember even in the VHS tapes how frustrating that was when you watch say like Ben -Hur?

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It's two tape sets and what you had to do is watch that first half and then it would cut to intermission.

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And they had the entire intermission in the film.

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Why? Like who's at home watching it and then the intermission comes and they're like, oh, let's all just sit still and maybe you know just wait for the intermission.

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That's for like the theater. Like literally they took it and just, okay, put it on tape and let's put it in people's homes.

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But it was really like the first half of the story and then there was that 10 -minute intermission where you had to go and push fast forward.

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But kids, fast forward for us was a chore, right?

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It was, it wasn't like today where you could just sort of like scan super fast and get to wherever you want. It was like click, click and you just sort of had to just wait and wait and wait and finally you get to it.

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Now you have to think about the Bible in similar terms. It's a narrative moving towards a climax.

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God is the master storyteller and I truly believe that one of the biggest reasons we get into so much trouble with say something like the

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Olivet Discourse or the Great Tribulation passage is we're not actually grappling with the fact that the

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Bible is from one storyteller. It's a master storyteller. It's a narrative that comes to a climax and oftentimes

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I think it really looks like this for us. We have that Ben -Hur story with the first half of the story and then that intermission and can you imagine if you're watching

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Ben -Hur, you see the first half, there's intermission, then all of a sudden it comes back and it's

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Pee -Wee's Big Adventure. Would that make any sense?

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If it was one story, there's an intermission, there's a long time period in between and all of a sudden when the story starts back again, it's

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Pee -Wee's Big Adventure. It's something that doesn't relate at all to that old story. It's different characters.

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It's a different scope. It's a different story. It has a different climax to it. It wouldn't make any sense whatsoever.

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Everybody would be asking the question, did I get the wrong tape in there? What happened after the intermission? This is an entirely different story and I often think of our problems with understanding much of the

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New Testament and the language and the imagery and even something like, like I said, the Olivet Discourse of the

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Great Tribulation. Our problem is, is we're not recognizing that we have to watch that first part of the film to fully understand this second part of the story.

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It's moving towards a climax. It's the same storyteller. We can't have a stunted understanding of, say, the gospel according to Matthew, that puts us in that kind of scenario.

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We've got one story being told before, a long intermission, and then an entirely different storyline afterwards.

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We have to understand that first part and here's what's glorious about Matthew. Matthew understands that first story.

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This is inspired revelation. It's from the mouth of God. It is theanoustos.

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It is breathed out by God, but Matthew clearly has an understanding of the

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Old Testament imagery, symbolism, and background. I've done this before and a lot of new people here, so I'm going to do this so we get an understanding of how important symbolism is in our minds as image bearers of God.

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And in particular, God uses symbolism throughout the entire Bible. It is everywhere.

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He always is making appeals to it and even giving his people things to do that would even be rehearsals with symbolism to teach them rudimentary elements to get them to Jesus so they can see and understand.

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If I was to say to you right now, 9 -11, it's just a word, but when

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I say 9 -11, 9 -11 isn't just a number any longer. 9 -11 calls together memories of an event.

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It calls together emotion. It calls together even memory of where you go back to.

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Where was I? How did it feel? How did I feel? What was going on around?

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And when I even say something like 9 -11 to you, many of you may be thinking those horrible thoughts, the images that come along with that number, like people falling out of buildings, explosions, dust in the air.

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You might be thinking about all the historic moments that happened afterwards with like the president down with the rubble and, you know, the people who knocked these buildings down.

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We'll hear from all of us soon that moment for all Americans, no matter where you were, you were like, yes, right?

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You remember that feeling all that comes with that? But here's the crazy thing. All it is is a number, right? 9 -11.

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And yet that now has become a symbol that calls together so many deep thoughts with so many layers to it.

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And God does that in the Old Testament from, honestly, from the very beginning. The very beginning of our

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Bible, it is immediate symbolism. Not the creation story, of course, but what happens in the fall of what does

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God do? As soon as the fall takes place and he confronts that first Adam, the promise is made about Jesus.

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Only it's not something like, hey, there's going to be a person, we're going to call his name

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Jesus, and he's going to do such -and -such a thing. No, it actually is this layer of death immediately where they couldn't really even fully grasp what was going on.

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It's right there in the story, even to the degree that they're, whoops, okay, even to the degree that they're naked and ashamed, they're uncovered, they feel guilt and shame, and God takes the skin of an animal and he covers their nakedness and their shame.

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That's this rudimentary understanding at the very beginning of the history of humanity of you're guilty, you're exposed, you should be ashamed, and yet it is

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God, not them who constructed it, but God who takes this innocent victim, a sacrifice, something dies for them, and he covers their shame and their nakedness and their guilt.

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There's some symbolism and imagery there, but there's even more. It's in Genesis 3. It's all right there.

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God immediately gives them this image. It's symbolism, but it was all depth, and it was pointing to Jesus in majestic ways they couldn't have possibly understood.

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Like, for instance, God says about the woman, he says that the woman's seed will crush the head of the serpent, but be bruised on his heel.

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What? Now, put yourself in Adam and Eve's, where they have shoes, bare feet for a second.

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All they know from God is God says that the woman's seed is going to crush the head of the serpent, but be wounded on his heel, and so you have this imagery immediately that's kind of weird.

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What's this situation with the woman's seed? You wouldn't refer to people's offspring in that way.

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The feminists hate that, but it was the man's seed, the man's offspring, like that line coming from the man, and you have this woman's seed.

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It's coming from the woman, and the head of the serpent's gonna get a mortal blow, but it's also at the same time gonna wound the woman's seed.

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So there's this imagery immediately about Jesus, but the death is there to the degree that it's death blow to Satan and his kingdom and his work and what was brought in, and it's the woman's seed, so it's a human, but it's the woman's seed, the virgin birth is wrapped up in that, but you also have it picking up when you get into things like the

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Passover. The Passover itself, real historic event, happened, really happened with the people of Israel.

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They were brought out of the land of Egypt. They were brought into the promised land, but God has this amazing encounter and conflict with the pagan gods of Egypt where their gods were supposed to have power over things like water and the beasts and those sorts of things, the frogs.

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They worship those gods, and God has this throwdown with the false gods in Egypt, and he shows that he's the one that has power over those things that were supposed to be controlled by their gods, and then

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God actually has this special moment for his people where he tells them he's gonna come and he's gonna strike down the firstborn in Egypt, but the house that has the blood of the lamb, the lamb with no spot and no blemish, the lamb whose bones were not allowed to be broken, the house that has the blood of the lamb over it,

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God will pass over that house in judgment. His people will escape that judgment, and they will escape

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Egypt and their bondage and slavery to go into the promised land of relationship with God. This really happens, but that's

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Jesus all over it. He's the lamb of God with no spot, no blemish, no sin, no stain.

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His bones weren't broken. He died on Passover, and when his blood covers our house, the judgment of God passes over us.

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We escape from our bondage to our slavery to sin, and we enter into that promised land of that relationship with God.

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It was all there. You have things like the day of atonement with the animal sacrifices, and the priest who represented the people, and he confesses the sin unto the scapegoat, and the people's sin was supposed to transfer to the scapegoat.

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The scapegoat was led away from the people, and then they also have the sacrifice that dies and sheds its blood for the people.

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Atonement is made. They have this symbolism. God's giving them that death, and it's all there from the very beginning.

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They have the temple. The temple itself was supposed to teach them something about God, God's city,

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God's presence, the problem of their sin separated from God. You see, the whole history of Israel is not,

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I think I said this at man camp to some guys, when you read the Old Testament as the 21st century

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Western person, you look at stuff in there, and you're like, some of this seems so strange, and so weird, and jarring at points.

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A priest, weird rituals, and blood, and a special room with a veil, and you've got all these weird rituals, and God has specific things he tells them about the priesthood, and how they were to do it, and preserve one another, and stay unstained from the world, and he gives them even dietary restrictions, and things they're supposed to do with their clothes, to teach them something about separation, about being different, about not engaging in syncretism, and being like the pagan nations, and some of the stuff looks so downright weird to the 21st century person, but when you really reflect on what

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God was doing, it is incredible. It is so incomprehensible that God was giving them, through rehearsal, and drill, and symbolism, what he was going to accomplish in Jesus, so that when

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Jesus arrives on the scene, and he accomplishes this tremendous work, and Passover, and he sheds his blood, and he's dying for the sins of his people, he's wearing the crown of thorns, which is a very sign of the fall in Genesis, all of this takes place, the temple veil is ripped in two, all of this happens, and if you knew

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God's Word, if you had been reading that book with that rudimentary symbolism, and basic stuff, on that day you should have said,

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I get it, I totally understand, now I understand, he's the lamb, he's that sacrifice, he's the one that takes away my sin, he is the one that allows a way for me to go through that veil, and enter into the holiest place before the

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God that I am separated from, they understood now, wait a second, the Passover lamb,

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God's judgment is passed over me, Jesus entered through that veil, he's the high priest, and he offered himself once for all, and he intercedes forever for me, you see, all of this was there from the beginning,

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Matthew understands that, and he's telling this story the whole time, so I can't do the like 10 years of sermons in one hour, but I'm going to try,

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I'm just kidding, no, I'm just going to give us some highlights and some things I hope you will hang on to, and even get deep with, get deep with, as we move through the rest of Matthew, a couple things that are clearly obvious for Matthew, go with me to Matthew chapter 1 again, now, we started off the service today reading chapter 1, verse 1, and it looks like this, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, and let's all be honest for a second, when you get to this section of scripture, or any of these kinds of lists in scripture, you oftentimes go,

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I'm going to skip that reading today, and go to chapter 2, right? Here's, I mean, that's understandable, it's a lot of names that sound interesting and strange, and I'm sure many of the children at Apologia Church will eventually take on these names,

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Eliud, Eliezer, Zadok, Abiod, yeah, it might happen, but here's the deal, watch, you need this, you need this, why?

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Because God said that he was going to preserve the line specifically and straight to Mashiach, to the

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Messiah, you need this list, and as a matter of fact, I can't do this whole sermon today,

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I'd love to, I can't, but it's back in the archive somewhere, you've actually got two different genealogies of Jesus in the

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New Testament, skeptics and critics of the Bible like to say, ha, ha, ha, contradictory genealogies, see?

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This couldn't possibly be from God, and here's what I said when I preached on that before, praise God for the two different genealogies, you better have them, you better have them, and here's why, in Genesis, sorry, in the genealogy in chapter one of Matthew, you have very specifically the genealogy that is the royal line to the throne, through Joseph.

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If you read Matthew chapter one, you see the emphasis in chapter one with the genealogy is in the story of Joseph, Jesus' adopted father, as a matter of fact,

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Joseph is given the duty to name Jesus, to name him, taking ownership of him, adopting him as his father, but in this genealogy is the royal line to the

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Messiah, and here's what's pointed out, the son of David, the son of Abraham, Matthew's focus is on the royal line in genealogy, through David and all the way back for Jesus, Luke, I believe, has a genealogy that is through Mary, Jesus' natural line, or physical line, and there's some interesting things in terms of a curse that's actually put on the royal line, but because Jesus is adopted, he still gets the right to the throne without getting the physical curse, some crazy things, ultimately only

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Jesus can be truly the Messiah, but here's what I want to point out, son of David and son of Abraham, now, in terms of being

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Messiah, that's essential, why? Because this is God's story, he's the master storyteller, it has always been

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God who is sovereignly wielding this story to its climax, and so son of David, son of Abraham, what do we know about them from the

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Old Testament? When God first started telling us the story of redemption, he gives us a story of Abraham, and what is one of the premier things that God says to Abraham?

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In Genesis 22, 17, God makes that promise, we're all familiar with here at Apologia where God actually says to Abraham that he is going to give him descendants as numerous as the stars, and like the sand on the seashore, that's a lot of descendants, a lot of descendants, we were just at Greer, it's just one of those places in Greer, you're driving forever to get there, and you're getting to higher and higher elevation, and by the time there is nightfall, you see a sky that is so different than you would see in most places because of light pollution, it is so grand, and even in a place like Greer, it's very different because if you've ever been on a cruise and you get out there in the ocean where there is absolutely no light pollution, when you look up to the sky, it is breathtaking, and God says to Abraham, I'm gonna multiply your descendants like the stars and like the sand of the seashore, that's the promise to Abraham all the way down to Messiah, that this, watch, this

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Messiah, this messianic king has to have his genealogy move all the way back through David and Abraham because these promises come from God, and he's the one that controls all of history, all of history.

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Now check this out, just a really interesting thing to think about in terms of God's providence, you understand how special you are?

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I'm not trying to inflate your egos or your heads, but I really want you to stop and think about this for a minute in terms of how special each and every single one of us are.

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Each of you are the collective of all of your ancestors, in a sense, right?

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All the information that comes from your ancestors, your mother and father, grandma, grandpa, all that, it all combines over time to the point you get you.

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You are the unique code of you that God spoke for you.

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So you are the you you are now because God uniquely spoke you into existence, but he used a means, and that was your mommy and daddy and their mommy and daddy and their mommy and daddy, and all the way back, and you have this collection of information that makes you you.

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Now watch this, take one person out of your family line going all the way back and what happens?

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You don't exist. You don't exist. It's interesting too because my father and mother met when my father was in the

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Air Force, and he was stationed in Las Vegas, Nellis Air Force Base, and the only thing

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I know about the story is my father was at a casino in Las Vegas, just randomly going around different casinos, and as he was leaving the casino, walking out the door, the door opens.

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He passes by my mom. He doesn't know. He thought she was a hottie, and so he started talking to her.

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So think about it for a minute now. If he didn't have the courage in that moment to pass through that door and say something to my mom who was just coming in because her mom worked at the casino, if that moment didn't take place,

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I don't exist. My kids don't exist. My grandchildren don't exist.

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This church isn't here. The thousands and thousands of babies that have been saved as a result of this church's work, what would happen to them?

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See how the whole history of humanity changes if somebody doesn't say hello at a door.

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Did you get it? Now in Jesus' line in history, this genealogy is God's story.

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He's controlling the narrative the whole way through, and God says to Abraham, I'm going to do it like this.

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It's going to look like this, stars and sand, but then the story of David is there, and what's that?

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The story of David, son of David, son of Abraham. What do we know about David? David's king of Israel, and we know this.

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I'm not going to exhaust the verses today, but the promise is that David's son, one of his descendants, is going to be on the

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Davidic throne and bring in the promised messianic kingdom. Pastor James was talking about Psalm 110 .1

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and 2 today before service today, that powerful section of scripture where it's

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Yahweh saying to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

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Jesus brings that up in the gospel according to Matthew when he's confronting the covenant -breaking

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Jews and the leadership of Jerusalem who are in opposition. He quotes from one

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Psalm 110 .1 about David's son, but specifically we know from Isaiah 9 verse 7 that it is going to be one of David's descendants that sits on David's throne, right?

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We know that the section of scripture, wonderful counselor, El Gabor, right, the mighty God, and it says of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end on the throne of David to establish it with justice and with righteousness forevermore, and the zeal of the

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Lord of hosts will accomplish this. So, Matthew knows this is the story. Abraham, David, this royal line, and then here we go,

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Jesus, he's here. And what's amazing is in this story we see

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Matthew chapter 1 that the story then gets to the angel coming to Joseph telling him in verse 20 not to fear to take

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Mary as his wife for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you shall call his name

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Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the

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Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name

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Emmanuel, which means what? God with us.

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But note how the story is already kind of coming together. You can sort of sense the themes.

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We already have the woman's seed. Joseph didn't participate in this.

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That's what made it so scandalous in some people's eyes. That's what made it such a jolt for Joseph.

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How's Joseph going to handle this? And the angel says, no, this is the promise. This is what

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God is doing. That which is conceived in her is by the agency of the Holy Spirit.

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So now we have a woman's seed coming. Now the story begins telling you the story of the messianic king.

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That was the expectation. And so this is what I want to emphasize right now. Please hear me on this in terms of understanding

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Matthew's narrative. I believe it was Spurgeon. Yes, I think it was

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Spurgeon when he did his study through Matthew. I think that's titled

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The Gospel of the Kingdom. So his exposition of Matthew is titled The Gospel of the

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Kingdom because that is really the story. It's the good news of the kingdom. We've missed that today.

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We've truncated the gospel. We talk about this often in such a way that it doesn't apply really to anywhere but me and my house between these walls, right?

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It's not really a gospel of a kingdom that we're used to. Matthew knew that was the expectation.

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In Christian history, Christians knew Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth. Jesus is lord of lords, king of kings.

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Jesus has something to say to every area of life. The kingdom is very good news and it's what

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Jesus was preaching, the gospel of the kingdom. Here's the thing you need to have behind you as you read

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Matthew. The expectation was that David's son, Abraham's son was coming to rule the worlds.

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Did you get it? David's son was coming to rule the world. Jesus was going to be on the throne of David and he was going to rule the nations and bring salvation.

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The story is all the families of the earth returned to worship Yahweh. Psalm 22.

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All the families of the earth are coming to Yahweh. This messianic king is coming to bring salvation and Jew and Gentile into one body and one people.

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He would be the ruler of the world. I'm not going to go through all the text but I'll give you some verses to go explore later.

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Genesis 49 10. Isaiah chapter 2. The Messiah was going to come and draw the nations to God.

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Not just Jews, the nations to God. They were going to come to God's mountain and God's Torah was going to go forth from the people of God.

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Isaiah 42. It's quoted in Matthew, Isaiah 42, that this righteous servant of God is going to come and establish justice in the world.

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The coastlands are waiting for his law. You of course have Psalm chapter 2.

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The father saying to the son that the nations are his, the ends of the earth are his inheritance.

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You have Isaiah, Psalms, Psalm 72. He shall have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

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We could go all day, all the scriptures that talk about the knowledge of God covering the earth like the waters cover the sea.

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But the point is, Matthew understands at the beginning of his gospel, this is the story of the king who's coming to rule the world and draw the nations to God.

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To rule the world and draw the nations to God. So I want you to get this real fast. In chapter 1,

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Matthew starts the story, the genealogy of the messianic king, son of Abraham, son of David, the ruler of the world, the one who's going to draw the nations to God, bring salvation.

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And then in Matthew 28, the book is capped off with that ascension of this messianic king, the son of David, going to his throne.

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And what's it say at the very end? Matthew 28, 18 through 20, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son of the

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Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and lo,

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I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. That's how the story ends. Matthew knows the story and he's bringing it together to show you the climax.

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Jesus is that promised king, the ruler of the world, the one who's going to draw the

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Gentiles. I want to show you it working now in the text, okay? So we were just in Matthew 1, verse 1.

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We only have 28 chapters to go, guys. We'll get you out of here by midnight. Just kidding. I told you we're just doing touches, right?

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This is just getting us picked back up in Matthew. I want you to see it. So to show you that Matthew clearly has this in his thoughts.

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Matthew chapter 12. In Matthew chapter 12,

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Jesus has one of his many conflicts with the Jewish leadership of his day over their interpretation and application of God's law.

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Here's what's really important in terms of moving forward in Matthew. Jesus specifically says in Matthew chapter 5, verses 17 through 19, do not even begin to think, do not think that I have come to destroy the law of the prophets.

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I have not come to destroy them, but to what? Fulfill them. And he even says if anybody teaches anyone to break even the least of these commandments, you'll be called least.

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But whoever does them and teaches them will be called the greatest. Jesus did not come to destroy

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God's law. He came to fulfill it. He came to teach us how to properly obey it and observe it and apply it.

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And in a particular place at the beginning of chapter 12, you see that kind of conflict with Jewish leadership. It happens throughout

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Matthew. Jesus is correcting their abuse of the law. They're mishandling the law. They're ignoring of the law of God.

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In Matthew chapter 15, he does that. They're contradicting of it. But in Matthew chapter 12, you see an example where Matthew clearly understands the storyline.

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In verse 15, it says, Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there, and many followed him.

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And he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet

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Isaiah. And then he quotes from, anybody recognize from where?

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This portion here, anyone recognize where? It's one of my favorite things.

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I'm quoting it all the time when it comes to people say, why do you care so much? Why do you care so much about what happens out there?

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Why? People will say that. Why do you care so much about oppressive laws and injustices around you?

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Why do you care about this person over there, this ruler speaking to them and preaching to them?

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Why do you care? Well, because I know the promises. I know Jesus is the ruler of the world. He has all authority on earth today.

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I know it's the meek that inherited the earth. I know Jesus came to win every nation to the father.

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I know the ends of the earth are his possession. And I know that this righteous one is going to establish justice.

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Matthew quotes it, Isaiah 42. Behold my servant whom

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I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I'll put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the

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Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.

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A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory.

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And in his name the Gentiles will hope. Interesting. See, Matthew understands that the whole storyline is that when the messianic king comes, he's coming to redeem the world.

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He's coming to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. The knowledge of God covering the earth like the waters cover the sea.

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They come to him as the light. The families of the earth return to worship

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Yahweh. And Matthew knows that this messianic king is not just for Jews. The nations are coming to God.

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The nations. It's so, listen, you know what's amazing? Is you oftentimes sit in a room like this with modern -day evangelicals who haven't grasped the concept that Jesus is sitting on the

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Davidic throne now. He's reigning now. We're not waiting for Jesus to come and establish a throne in physical

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Jerusalem. He is seated on the throne now. And they'll say, you're saying Jesus is ruling now?

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The messianic kingdom is a present reality? It's happening now? And you'll go, well of course, because Jesus said that and it's throughout the

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New Testament. And they'll go, I just don't see it. And it's amazing to me. We're in the desert now on the other side of the world.

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And you look around this room right now, there's a lot of different colors in here. A lot of different backgrounds.

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This is right here, a microcosm of the families of the earth returning to worship who?

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Yahweh. In this one room right now is this beautiful portrait of all those promises.

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Matthew knows that. And when he's telling you the narrative of Jesus in history, it's not simply this black and white,

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Jesus went there and said this, and then a couple hours later they went to this place, and then he ate this thing, and then they did this.

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The whole story is real history, but there's this depth of symbolism and understanding and enriching with the

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Old Testament promises that is connecting constantly in Matthew. Don't ignore it.

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That's the point here, okay? So take away. Don't ignore it. Like, let me give you an example. Confession.

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All of us are guilty of this. You start reading the New Testament, you'll read, say, a book in the

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New Testament, say Matthew, and you'll read it, and you'll never go back to check that verse, right?

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You'll read Matthew like 12. How many of you guys did it? You read Matthew 12. He says, this was fulfilled, was spoken by the prophet, and then he quotes something, and you go, yeah, all right.

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Sure. Sounds good. But you never went back to figure out, like, what was, what was the promise there?

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Go read it. Go read it, because then you'll go, oh, it's even bigger than even Matthew's able to put down on papyrus.

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It's even bigger. There's depth to it. So here's the deal. Remember, it's not just explicit reference,

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A verse, B verse. It is also the depth of the symbolism and imagery that is also there.

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But the promise was drawing of the Gentiles. Now, here's, here's what I want you to capture. It's really beautiful, really beautiful.

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Okay, good. All right. Desi, I'm just joking. It's totally fine.

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We'll talk later. Teasing. There are two, there are two, what, people, peoples, that you need to understand to fully identify what

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Matthew is getting at in some portions of Matthew. So I'll just, I'll do this as quickly as I can. I want to show you one of my favorite things with it.

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The first is Adam. Adam. Jesus is clearly, of course, even through the genealogy, he's truly human.

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He's going back to Adam. And so I won't spend a lot of time there today in terms of Matthew really extending the story of Adam, showing that Jesus is the true and perfect Adam, and what

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Adam was supposed to be, all of that. But also Israel. Now this is really key. Get, get this and you'll get actually a pretty spectacular part of the

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Bible. If you read Isaiah, who is clearly one of Matthew's favorite Old Testament prophets.

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If you read Isaiah, did you notice that in Isaiah God actually refers to the people of Israel as God's servants, as a servant of God, the people of Israel.

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And this is where it gets kind of confusing and beautiful and amazing, is that in some parts of the

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Old Testament in Isaiah, God will refer to Israel as his servants. And then all of a sudden he starts talking about the servant again, but the servant can't really be the people of Israel because the stuff that's said about this servant in Isaiah can't match them.

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They are sinful, but this servant is talked about in Isaiah as a sinless one dying for the sins of Israel and things like that.

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So it must have tripped him out, right? The Jews had to be like, well Israel is a servant of God and yet this servant is coming and that clearly is not us.

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So there's this identification from the Old Testament of Jesus as Israel, the servant of God, and in Matthew, Matthew picks up on it right away.

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I'm going to show it to you. If you look at Matthew chapter 1, you can see that Matthew begins to walk you through the history of Israel, but it's

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Jesus. It's Jesus' real history, but God is causing the history of Israel to intersect with Jesus' life.

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So Jesus is essentially walking through the story of Israel, but where Israel failed

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God, Jesus has victory. So in Isaiah chapter 1, you of course have the promise that the angel says, that which is in her womb is from the

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Holy Spirit, that going from Isaiah, that promise about Emmanuel. Then in chapter 2, it talks about Jesus being born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king.

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Behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.

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Now move down to verse 5. Watch this. They told him when they were inquiring about where the

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Messiah was supposed to be born. In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet. And Micah 5 is quoted now here.

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That's one of those verses that's like an explicit reference A, B, C. When, where, how, what.

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Those kinds of verses are there, but there's also more depth. It's not just an identification of a verse.

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There's also this symbolism and imagery that's going to be drawn out here. But I want you to note in this reference from Micah chapter 5, if you went back and read that, you would see there's more to the story than simply the

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Messiah is coming from Bethlehem. It says his goings forth are from old, yea, even from eternity.

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Had to trip Jews out. It had to trip them out. Because they know only

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Yahweh is eternal. And yet this one coming to Bethlehem has been his goings forth are from old, yea, even from everlasting, from eternity.

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It's an incredible thing. But here we go. As the story moves through chapter 2, you of course have now this political leader,

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Herod, who actually tries to kill Jesus. Verse 13. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the

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Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you.

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For Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod.

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This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, out of Egypt I called my son.

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Stop. Another example as to why you should never listen to an atheist talk to you about theology.

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Another example of why you should never let the skeptic of God's word mishandle

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God's truth. You know, some skeptics and critics of the Bible don't spend a lot of time actually listening to Christians explain the

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Bible and the depth and the beauty of it. So there are some people who don't know the Bible, know how to handle it correctly.

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They go to a passage like this where it says, out of Egypt I called my son. And they go, ha ha, I got you.

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We're two chapters in and I've got you. Matthew is misquoting the Old Testament because guess what?

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That verse in the Old Testament was about Israel, God's son.

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So what's Matthew doing quoting it in reference to Jesus as though it's fulfilled in Jesus?

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Here's how. It's not just explicit reference that points to Jesus. There is that. But God was laying this depth of symbolism and story throughout the

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Old Testament. It's his narrative so that when Jesus comes, are you hearing it already?

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Here you have a baby and a political leader is trying to kill the baby.

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That happen anywhere else in history? Who'd that happen to? Moses.

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And then you have now Jesus going into Egypt and then it says out of Egypt I called my son.

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Jesus goes to Egypt and then he gets out of Egypt and now you have Jesus now walking through the story of Israel, God's servant,

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God's son. There are layers to this. There's a depth to this.

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Jesus is fulfilling what Adam was supposed to be and what Israel, God's servant, was supposed to be.

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And of course the story goes on throughout here. I'm not going to get into every detail of this.

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Let me just show you the depth that happens here in Matthew. You need to pay attention to the Old Testament imagery and references to understand

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Matthew rightly. But watch this. In chapter 3 you have the introduction of John the

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Baptist. Now here's what I want to show you to emphasize that this is in fact thematic.

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It's a theme of the gospel according to Matthew and it is the promise of the kingdom. Here it is. The first words out of John the

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Baptist's mouth are, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Many of us are thrown by the word heaven.

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Heaven was synonymous with God. So kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven. Kingdom of heaven is not like something out there.

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What kingdom of heaven means is the rule of God. So John the Baptist is saying the rule of God is at hand.

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That promised messianic kingdom is here now. It's at fingertip reach. It's right here.

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And John the Baptist says, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And Matthew points out, for this is he who was spoken of by the prophet

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Isaiah when he said, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way the Lord, make his path straight.

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The story of John is told here. But here's what I want you to capture here. Very important because this is

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Matthew opening his story of Jesus. And the first words out of the forerunner's mouth are, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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And then he turns the attention to the Jewish leadership of the day. And he says, verse seven, when he saw many of the

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Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

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Bear fruit in keeping with repentance and do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

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Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

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I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals

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I'm not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Not good.

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His winnowing fork is in his hands and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his weed into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

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Matthew's just opening up. Royal line of Jesus. The king has arrived on time as promised.

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It's not just a king. It's also what Israel was supposed to be. The story of Israel is there.

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Jesus is the servant of God. He is the son of God. And then here's the forerunner now saying to the

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Jewish leadership, the axe is laid at the root of the trees. Now stop for a second.

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For those of you guys that weren't here for this study, this is very important. Axe is laid at the root of the trees means the axe has been swung.

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It is laid there. The judgment is about to come. That tree is about to be cut down.

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And he tells the Jewish leadership, kingdom of heaven is at hand. You better repent in a hurry.

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You better repent in a hurry. Talking specifically to the Jewish leadership. And here's what's important about this.

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If you read the Old Testament passages that talk about John the

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Baptist, the forerunner coming, do you know what it references? In Malachi chapter 3 and 4.

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Go read it later. Can't do the entire depth today. Malachi 3 and 4 talks about the messenger that's coming and then

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Yahweh himself will come to his temple and he'll do two things. You ready for this? Get this?

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You'll get a theme. To properly and understand and interpret the gospel according to Matthew, there's two things that are described in Malachi chapters 3 and 4.

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And that is that the Messiah is coming. He would come to his temple. Yahweh would come to his own temple.

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That's Jesus, Yahweh after the messenger, John the Baptist. And it says that he will purify and he will judge.

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So the Messiah is coming according to the Old Testament was not merely going to be Jesus has saved me so I can go to heaven one day.

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Messiah's coming was going to be salvation for God's people and judgment upon the covenant breakers for violating

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God's law. And lo and behold, Matthew opens the story with the Savior entering into his ministry.

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And what happens? John the Baptist immediately telling them, the ax is already laid at the root of the trees.

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Judgment is coming. Repent in a hurry. By the way, that's exactly what the story told us.

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Remember the intermission? When the story comes back, it's supposed to be the same story extended coming to its climax.

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It's not supposed to be a different story. Matthew isn't doing that. Matthew doesn't have one story and then a completely foreign story picking up somewhere else with new characters and a new ending.

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Matthew is carrying the story from the Old Testament saying, remember?

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John the Baptist, remember the messenger? Yahweh's coming to his temple. What was going to happen? Salvation and judgment on who?

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The covenant breakers. Who's Matthew talking to as soon as it opens up? Or sorry, John the Baptist. Who's he talking to?

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He's talking to the covenant people, the leadership of Israel, those who were ultimately rejecting

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Christ. But here's what I want you to see. In Matthew chapter 4,

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Matthew begins to extend more this symbolism and imagery and yet its historical narrative at the same time.

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So I want you to see it so you know what to look for as you're reading Matthew. Matthew chapter 4, then Jesus was led up by the

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Spirit into the wilderness. Stop. Think with your Bibles. That's a good way to word that, right?

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Think with your Bibles. Jesus has already been called the son called out of Egypt.

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Jesus is already being portrayed as that messianic king, son of David, son of Abraham.

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And now we have Matthew who knows the Old Testament. Think with your Bibles. Jesus led up by the

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Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Now freeze real fast.

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Where else was there a temptation in the history of mankind? With the devil there.

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Where? In the garden. So Matthew, watch. He's pulling together the imagery of Israel and Adam, because you still have now

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Jesus who is, we know, the perfect image of God, what Adam was supposed to be. And he is the servant of God, the true

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Israel of God. And Matthew goes, now Jesus, the true and perfect Israel, and what

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Adam was supposed to be, goes into this trial, this temptation, into the wilderness.

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Remember I did this? I said 9 -11. And what happened to your mind? You all started imagining all the thoughts and imagery called together.

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Now watch. For the Jewish mind, think with your Bible. Jesus led by the

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Spirit goes into the wilderness. Now think like a Jew with your

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Bibles. Shalom. If you say wilderness to a

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Jew, what's it do? It calls together all the imagery and all the thoughts of what?

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Good stuff or bad stuff? Well, some good but mostly bad.

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What'd they do? They wandered in the wilderness for how long? 40 years.

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Oh wait, it says that. And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry.

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And the tempter came to him and said to him, if you're the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But he answered, it is written.

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You see, what? Watch. What should have happened in the garden?

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What should have happened? God says all of humanity's problems solved in one swoop.

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It was, of course, God's plan to bring about his glory through the redemption of a sinful people.

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So it was all in God's plan. But in terms of what ought to have been the case, when the tempter comes and deceives and says such and such, the people of God were always supposed to say what?

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God says. So Jesus is the perfect Adam. He's the perfect Israel. Now he's in the wilderness.

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The 40 days, 40 nights, 40 in the wilderness. And now Satan, the tempter, comes to the perfect image of God, what

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Adam was supposed to be. And he says, hey, how about this? And Jesus says, it is written.

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Now, of course, you have the next temptation where it says the holy city setting on a pinnacle, of course.

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Jesus said to him, again, it is written, you should not put the Lord your God to the test. Now, here is what I want you to see in terms of what Matthew's story is.

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Here we go, guys. We're wrapping up here, but I want you to see this one. Verse 8. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

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And he said to him, all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.

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Then Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan, for it is written, you should worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.

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Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. I want to hang on to this very important thought.

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Matthew's already opened up. Matthew 1, genealogy of the king, the royal right to the throne, son of David, son of Abraham.

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He's walking through the history of Israel, and now we have the introduction of John the Baptist. And if we know our Old Testament, the messenger was supposed to come, the forerunner was supposed to come before Yahweh came to his own temple, and there was going to be salvation and judgment.

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Judgment on the covenant breakers. But what's the theme? King. John the

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Baptist says, the rule of God is at hand. Now watch. Go back to 4.

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It says in verse 12, now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee and leaving

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Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet

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Isaiah might be fulfilled. The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the

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Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people dwelling in darkness have seen great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.

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Okay, pause. Anyone know where he's quoting from? Don't do

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Google. Raise your hand if you know where he's quoting from. Anyone know?

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This is what, watch. Hey, if we actually referenced where he's quoting from, we would have a much better understanding of what

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Matthew's trying to tell us about Jesus, the theme of his gospel. He's quoting from Isaiah chapter 9.

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Now watch this. You already know Isaiah chapter 9. It's the Christmas verse, right?

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A son, a child, wonderful counselor, El Gabor, everlasting father of the increase of his government and of peace.

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There will be no end on the throne of David to establish it with justice and righteousness forevermore.

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The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. Hey, did you catch that? That was post mill, right?

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That was the rule of God, increase of his government, end of peace, and increase on David's throne, and the zeal of the

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Lord of hosts will accomplish this. This is God's kingdom bringing the world into redemption and salvation, and Matthew quotes after the temptation this verse from the first half of Isaiah 9.

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If you keep reading, it's about the messianic kingdom. Now, what's the first thing

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Jesus says? I want you to see it. Verse 17. From that time, Jesus began to preach saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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The rule of God is at hands. That's the theme. And I want you to see what

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Jesus is teaching, and then we'll end here and ask the question, are we? Verse 23.

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And he went throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

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Let's stop there. Jesus, we're four chapters in, and Jesus is teaching the rule of God is at hand.

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He's teaching the good news of the kingdom. So, my final thoughts here are something like this.

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Do we teach that? Because that's Matthew's gospel. That's his good news.

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The king has arrived. The one who is going to draw the nations, the Gentiles, to God, he's arrived.

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The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus teaches throughout Matthew. He teaches the parables of the kingdom.

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You have the seeds and the ground. You have the leaven and a lump of dough. You have the mustard seed that becomes a large tree.

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It's kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, kingdom. The rule of God, Jesus accomplishes his salvation for his people.

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He promises judgment upon the covenant breakers in their generation before they all die.

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And then Jesus, as he ascends, he says, it's mine now. All authority, heaven, earth, go get them.

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Watch. To the first century Jewish audience who knew their Bibles, who could think with their

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Bibles, the rule of Jesus in the world was good news. You see, for in the

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Bible, the gospel good news is not merely about, not merely about, my own private salvation with God.

01:00:11

It's not merely an individual's romantic relationship with their

01:00:17

God. Right? We often think about it like that. Like the gospel is about me getting to go to heaven.

01:00:24

I've got Jesus and I go to heaven one day. Yes, but not really only that.

01:00:32

You see, it's not so much about us going to heaven one day as it is heaven came to earth and is filling the earth.

01:00:43

Do you get the direction is a little wrong? We think about it in terms of us going that way when the

01:00:48

Bible's emphasis, is it coming this way to us? And the fact that it is now the kingdom of heaven, the rule of heaven in this world, that was supposed to be good news.

01:01:01

Why? Because it was God bringing his salvation and the nations to God to bring redemption around the entire world.

01:01:09

If we think with our Bibles and remember to read the Bible biblically, we'll properly understand the gospel according to Matthew.

01:01:20

We won't ignore verses that are quoted from Isaiah and just go, that's nice. We'll go back and see, well, what was the promise?

01:01:28

What did it say? Why is this so powerful related to Jesus? We won't miss those obvious allusions to Jesus as the perfect Israel.

01:01:40

Where Israel went to the wilderness and face planted, Jesus goes into the wilderness and he has victory.

01:01:47

He obeys the father. Where Adam fails, Jesus has victory. Where Israel fails,

01:01:52

Jesus has victory. But the glory of this story also, and I hope it's blessed you as I spent time going verse by verse through it, is those two points.

01:02:04

Salvation and judgment were supposed to come when the Messiah arrived. And we got both in the first century.

01:02:11

Salvation for the people of God and judgment upon the covenant breakers. When Jesus has the epic conflict and throwdown with the

01:02:19

Jewish leadership in Matthew 21 through 24, watch this. If you think with your

01:02:25

Bible, that's expected. The covenant breakers were supposed to be judged at the coming of the

01:02:33

Messiah. There was going to be salvation and judgment. So when Jesus comes and he confronts them and he says, your house is left to you desolate.

01:02:40

There will not be left one stone standing upon another. And here's what you're going to see, all these things before you all die.

01:02:48

It happens. And because we don't think with our Bibles, we look at Matthew 24 as modern day evangelicals and our story looks like Ben -Hur turning into Pee -Wee's

01:03:02

Playhouse. Why? Because we'll read a verse in Matthew 24 related to their generation where it says, the stars are going to fall from heaven.

01:03:14

The moon, the sun, blood, no light. And we do this, don't we?

01:03:20

We go like this. We go, when's it going to happen? Or you can think with your

01:03:27

Bible and realize Isaiah 13, God already spoke like that. Jesus was quoting from Isaiah 13 where God said that about a pagan nation he was about to destroy and turn their world upside down.

01:03:43

Jesus wasn't speaking literally about stars crashing into the earth. It was prophetic, hyperbole judgment language.

01:03:52

And he was literally quoting from Isaiah 13 about Egypt, Babylon. But this time

01:03:58

Jesus is quoting judgment language about Israel. They knew it was about a pagan nation.

01:04:04

And he says, now you. Do you see? Matthew has pulled together this incredible tapestry in the

01:04:13

Gospel according to Matthew that culminates, climaxes in Matthew 28, 18 through 20, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

01:04:25

Therefore go make disciples of all the nations and do what to them? Baptize them, teach them to what everybody?

01:04:32

Obey. Watch. This is my word to us all. I also picked

01:04:37

Matthew. Here's my nefarious motive.

01:04:44

I also picked Matthew because Matthew emphasizes over and over and over and over again the ultimate authority of this

01:04:54

Messiah, his rule in the world, and Jesus teaching us that his lordship is supposed to cover all.

01:05:04

And he demands our complete obedience. Matthew is thematic in that way as well.

01:05:11

And I'm going to encourage you to think about as you read Matthew together with me, as we go through it together, I want you to think about how it's supposed to challenge and change you and send you off into the world to go proclaim the message he was, the good news of his kingdom.

01:05:29

You see, if this is good news of a kingdom, then his rule applies to everything.

01:05:37

To everything. You see here, watch this. What an audacious claim. What an audacious claim.

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All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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Be honest. C .S. Lewis said it right. Either Jesus is crazy, God forbid, he's a liar, or he's

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Lord and it's true. He either has all authority on earth, or he was a madman, or he was lying, or he's really

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Lord and he has it. And if he really has it, then maybe we'll start living lives as God's people, acting like he does.

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Preaching the truth to our world like he really does. Laying our lives down in service to him like he calls us to, where he says, come die and live again.

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You see, this is good news of a kingdom that we can't even begin to explicate in one service.

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But I hope I did some justice to it. Let's pray. Father, I pray you bless the message that went out today for your glory and for your kingdom.

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Teach us as we go through Matthew and finish it. I pray that you protect your people and me from error.

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I pray that you bless us as we unpack your word, that it changes us and that you use us.