Sermon Tone Analysis

Have you ever wanted to write a book?

Me neither.

Writing books is really hard.

Reading books takes a while, I imagine writing one takes a little longer.

Now, what’s funny is we’re a church of about 100 people, and we have several authors in our midst!

Gene Poppino has helped write a book.

Hannah Russell is in the process of writing a book.

Gwen Waller and Harold Eash have each on their own written multiple books.

I wonder if other churches have 4% of their congregation write books.

If you could write a book, what would it be about?

Our old pastor Dave Odell said he wanted to write a book about God and Dogs and Theology, I’m not sure how that would work, but if you knew Dave, you know Dave LOVED dogs.

If you’re going to write a book, you have to be passionate about what you’re writing about.

Why?

Because writing a book is hard.

I like eating burritos at the Mexican Mart across the street.

I would not write a book about it because I don’t LOVE eating burritos at the Mexican Mart across the street.

Writing a book takes dedication, heavy amounts of research, experience, and passion about the subject.

Nearly two thousand years ago, a Jewish man named Matthew wrote a book.

He wrote about something he was so convinced of, so passionate about, something he had experienced so deeply himself, that he wanted as many people to know about it as possible, so he put it in writing, and it was so successful, that two thousand years later, Gateway Chapel in the ends of the earth is going to be talking about it.

This year, we’re going to be walking through the gospel of Matthew together.

Matthew is an incredible book, one that I am so excited to share with you all in 2023.

This morning, rather than dive right into Chapter 1, I want to do a brief overview of the book as a whole and ask, “What is Matthew about?

Why does it matter for you, for me, for our cities, for the world in 2023?”

I would argue, the main point of Matthew is that Jesus is the Christ.

Jesus is the Messiah.

The Son of David.

He’s the Son of God.

He’s the Savior of the World.

He’s the King!

Or, to put it in a way you could share with your neighbor - Jesus is the most important person in the world, then, now, and forever.

And that’s really good news.

So we’re going to learn some things about Matthew, see how the book’s structure points towards its message, and see what that means for us today.

Prayer

Why Matthew in 2023?

I want to be more and more convinced, as I hope you do too, that the most important thing about my life is getting to know Jesus better.

That’s what we mean when we say we are a church on mission to make disciples who hear, love, and obey Jesus.

So reading Matthew, which is all about Jesus, helps us to do that.

And the Bible says regularly gathering as Christians to encourage one another sing songs together, teach from God’s word, is a part of becoming more like Jesus.

What is Matthew all about?

When I read books with Isabelle, the first page in a book is that one with all the tiny print with the copywright info…Isabelle likes that!

She’ll ask, “When was this written?”

And I’ll say, “When you give a cat a cupcake was written in 2011” and She’ll say, “Oh...”

If you open your Bible, Matthew doesn’t have that basic info, but I think it’s important as we begin looking at the book.

Who’s the author of Matthew?

If you said Jesus you’re either just guessing or you’re being snarky because yes God did inspire Scripture but he also used human authors and traditionally, church history has said Matthew is the author.

Does it say that anywhere?

It doesn’t.

But for thousands of years the church has attributed this to Matthew so we’re going to roll with it.

Who is Matthew?

He’s a tax collector.

We read that in Matthew 9 when Jesus calls Matthew.

Matthew is a Jew…Matthew is one of the most Jewish books of the New Testament.

He pulls so consistently from the Old Testament writings.

When was it written?

People think different things.

There’s a possibility it was written after AD 70, which was when the Romans sacked Jerusalem.

Which makes you read sayings of Jesus differently like, “Love your enemy, pray for those who persecute you...” Why Jesus?

Because look what happened!

Who did he write it to?

If you wrote a book, who would you want to read it?

As many people as possible.

Jews and Gentiles.

Matthew wants everyone to know Jesus.

However, Matthew was almost an edge to it, and seems particularly written for Jews who were unconvinced of Jesus being the Christ.

Look at this verse in Matthew 27...

Why is it in our Bibles?

God wanted it to be there, for one.

Two, if we didn’t have Matthew, we wouldn’t have the Sermon on the Mount, some of the most precious words ever spoken!

We wouldn’t have Jesus’ self attestation in Matthew 11, “I am gentle and lowly in heart.”

I love Matthew because, as we’ll see, the structure makes sense, it’s like you can carry it around in your mind and have it at your disposal as you go about your daily life with Jesus.

What is the book about?

It’s all about Jesus, the most important person in the world.

How do we know that?

Look at how Matthew starts and ends his book:

Christ is not Jesus’ last name, Matthew is right from the start arguing that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the savior of the world, the most important person in the history of the world.

Okay now the last verse:

Matthew wants us to read his book, close it, and say: Oh my goodness, it’s all about Jesus!

He’s the King!

The whole Old Testament is about him, the story of the world is about him, my life is for him…and to be driven to get to know him more.

Matthew is 28 chapters long, how does the structure of the book point to this main point that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the King, the most important person in the world?

One way to look at Matthew is in a three part structure:

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

Part 1 - He’s the Promised King!

Part 2 - He is the Good King!

Part 3 - He is the Crucified and Victorious King!

Thanks to Fletcher for pointing me towards some good resources and helping me with this structure...Part 1 says, “Look, Jesus is the one we were promised!”

Part 2 of Matthew says, “Look at what Jesus said and what he did, he’s a good king!” and Part 3 says, “You missed him!

You expected him to be something else, but he was a crucified and victorious king!”

So let’s briefly look at each of these parts to see how they add to Matthew’s point that Jesus is the most important person in the world.

How does Part 1 of Matthew point us to Jesus as the most important person in the world?

Part 1 - Matthew 1:1-4:16.

“The Promised King”

The story of the Bible is one of God being King, making a good creation, but humans tarnishing that good creation by choosing that we want to be king, rather than God.

And God promises that one day he would send his King, the promised Messiah to save humans from the sin and death which has corrupted that world.

And Matthew says guys…It’s Jesus.

He’s the one who fulfills all the Old Testament prophecy about the Promised King.

In Matthew, we see the word fulfill 14 times, with half of those coming in Part 1 of the book…like in Matthew 1:22

or

Part 1 of Matthew is very concerned about proving that Jesus is the Promised King which the whole Old Testament was pointing to.

A brief scan of the first four chapters -