Insights on Matthew 1--15

Charles R. Swindoll

• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781414393827
• eBook ISBN: 9781496410672

Matthew's Gospel shows that Jesus was Israel's king and long-awaited Messiah. In Insights on Matthew 1–15, Chuck Swindoll explores the announcement, arrival, proclamation, and reception of the king. Chuck's deep insight, signature easygoing style, and humor bring a warmth and practical accessibility not often found in commentaries.

The 15-volume Swindoll's Living Insights New Testament Commentary series draws on 13-time Christian Book Award winner Chuck Swindoll's more than 50 years of studying and preaching God's Word. Each volume includes both the NLT and NASB translations of the Bible, verse-by-verse commentary, charts, maps, photos, key terms, and background articles with practical application. A must-have for pastors, teachers, and anyone else who is seeking a deeply practical resource for exploring God's Word.

INSIGHTS ON MATTHEW 1–15

Though God may not show up exactly the way we’re expecting or through the means we think He should, God does show up. Matthew’s Gospel not only reveals that Jesus is the King, Israel’s long-awaited Messiah, but it also reminds us that Jesus is our Immanuel —“God with us” —now resurrected and ascended, yet with us still, even to the end of the age.

MATTHEW: INTRODUCTION

The backgrounds of the four Gospel writers present a fascinating study in contrasts. John Mark had likely been a teenage hanger-on accompanying the disciples. He may have been the young man who fled the scene of Jesus’ arrest in an embarrassing fashion (Mark 14:51-52).[1] Then, after a shaky start in ministry with Paul and his own cousin, Barnabas (Acts 12:25–13:13; 15:36-41; see Col. 4:10), Mark went on to become a faithful assistant to the apostle Peter (1 Pet. 5:13), ultimately penning what was probably the earliest written Gospel, based on Peter’s firsthand testimony.

Luke, on the other hand, was a physician (Col. 4:14). As a well-educated Gentile skilled in Greek, Luke applied his meticulous, critical mind to collecting, verifying, and arranging information so as to write a careful, orderly account of the life of Christ (Luke 1:1-4). Then he wrote a sequel recounting the earliest decades of the church, partly based on his own firsthand participation in ministry (Acts 1:1-2).

John, the “disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 20:2), started out as a young fisherman willing to cast off the entanglements of fishing nets and become a fisher of men (Matt. 4:18-22). By the time John penned his Gospel around AD 97, he not only likely had access to the other three Gospels but also had had a lifetime to reflect on the deep theological truths concerning who Jesus was and what that really meant.

This brings us to Matthew. Not a blue-collar fisherman like John. Not a sophisticated, white-collar physician like Luke. And not a young hanger-on like Mark. Matthew had been a tax collector.

A TAX COLLECTOR!

It’s hard for us to picture what that meant to a first-century Jewish audience. Banish from your mind the image of a well-dressed IRS auditor just doing their job to keep taxpayers honest, or a matter-of-fact customs officer reviewing goods to make sure nobody exceeds duty-free limits. Matthew was not some hourly cashier collecting coins for local officials. The Greek term telōnēs [5057], translated “tax collector,” is used quite negatively in the New Testament —often associated with such terms as “sinners” and “prostitutes.”[2] Involved in the collection of money for an oppressive government, tax collectors were regarded as unpatriotic . . . and they were known to engage in extortion for personal gain.[3] If we picture a low-ranking mobster fleecing honest, hardworking citizens for a local cartel, we probably wouldn’t be far from the truth. Michael Green notes that tax collectors, known in Latin as publicani, “were much hated as social pariahs, and the Jews classed them with murderers. They were not even tolerated in the synagogues.”[4]

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QUICK FACTS ON MATTHEW

• When was it written? Around AD 65
• Where was it written? Possibly Antioch
• Who wrote it? Matthew (also called Levi), son of Alphaeus
• Why was it written? To demonstrate to Jewish readers that Jesus is the King, Israel’s long-awaited Messiah

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Who else but God would choose a hated, greedy tax collector not only to become one of Jesus’ twelve disciples but also to pen what would become the first book of the New Testament canon? What a surprising example of the mercy and grace of God! When the presumably dishonest tax collector named Levi (Matthew) met the Lord Jesus and recognized Him as the long-awaited King of Israel, everything changed. His whole life would now be about proclaiming the Messiah to his fellow Jews —both through his living testimony and through his written words. I love what one man writes about Matthew: “When Jesus called Matthew, as he sat in the office where he collected the customs duty, Matthew rose up and followed him and left everything behind him except one thing —his pen.”[5]

MATTHEW AMONG THE FOUR GOSPELS

God chose to reveal the life, works, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ through four written accounts —those of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Why four Gospels? Why not just one? Or seven? Because God has seen fit to reveal Himself in this way. His Spirit has told us the pivotal story of Jesus, the God-man, through the eyes of four unique writers with four distinct but complementary perspectives. The following chart summarizes these four Gospels, demonstrating the various contributions of their writers.

COMPARISON OF THE FOUR GOSPELS

• Portrait of Jesus
  • Matthew: Promised King
  • Mark: Suffering Servant
  • Luke: Perfect Man
  • John: God the Son
• Original Audience
  • Matthew: Jews
  • Mark: Romans
  • Luke: Greeks
  • John: The World
• Author
  • Matthew: Tax collector, one of the twelve disciples
  • Mark: Close associate of and assistant to the disciples
  • Luke: Gentile physician, early convert
  • John: Fisherman, one of the twelve disciples
• Theme
  • Matthew: The messianic King has come, fulfilling Old Testament promises.
  • Mark: The Son of God has come to seek, to serve, and to save.
  • Luke: The Son of Man has come to redeem all of humanity.
  • John: The eternal Son of God has become incarnate.
• Response
  • Matthew: Worship Him!
  • Mark: Follow Him!
  • Luke: Imitate Him!
  • John: Believe in Him!

Though all four Gospel accounts together harmoniously present the good news of the person and work of Jesus Christ in His first coming, Matthew, Mark, and Luke relate to each other in a unique way. These three are called “synoptic” Gospels, from a Greek term meaning “seeing together.” In many places these first three Gospels can be read side by side, giving distinct but complementary accounts of events that, when “seen together,” provide a fuller picture of what Jesus said and did. In contrast, the apostle John’s account, written several decades after the synoptic Gospels were composed, covers elements from John’s own eyewitness testimony that the preceding Gospels don’t treat.

Though the synoptic Gospels present the life of Christ in...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Author’s Preface
• The Strong’s Numbering System
• Insights on Matthew 1–15
• Matthew: Introduction
• Announcement and Arrival of the King (Matthew 1:1–4:25)
• Proclamation and Reception of the King (Matthew 5:1–15:39)