Matthew 1-5
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Background and Context
Background and Context
What is the story of the Bible?
It all starts with God. God is the central figure of the Bible. What does God want? God wants to love and be loved by his family. He has family members that are in the heavens and on the earth. In the beginning God creates a Garden on earth, a sacred, holy place where he can walk with his family. Adam and Eve, the human members of that family are given Dominion and rulership over all of the earth.
One of the heavenly members of God’s family leads Adam away from God. Humans lose their dominion over earth, and must fight to maintain what little authority they have. They lose their relationship with God.
The nations are disinherited at Babel, and God creates a new people for himself out of nothing to be his inheritance. The nations are turned over to worship false gods, demons that are no gods. That is their rightful place because they had no faith in YHWH. YHWH claims Israel for himself to be the place where He will be worshipped.
God gives this people a way to live, a way to be purified and to approach him. He requires that they be loyal to worship him alone and that they live out of faith. He works through their history, and their lack of loyalty. He raises up a king (David) that will be the forerunner of an everlasting kingdom. He raises up prophets that tell of a future messianic figure that will establish that worldwide kingdom.
In Christ, that messianic figure comes. His kingdom isn’t the type of kingdom that we were expecting though. He came to win victories over the spirits behind the nations. His kingdom is in the skies because he wants to rule in the spiritual world first. It isn’t just peace and love, there is war and violence, but it isn’t against other people, it is against the spirits that hold them captive. He is taking back the world as his inheritance from the managers that were put in place (be it the LAW or the elemental spirits of the world).
The Church is his new nation, made up of the saints ruling with him in heaven and the embodied church on earth. We reclaim the nations that were disinherited by spreading the gospel across the globe. When this mission is fulfilled, Christ will return to make all things new.
What is the story of the Old Testament?
The story of God making righteous a people he calls to himself by grace through faith.
The law was a system of ritual purification by which God purified those who had faith so that they could approach him.
The ones who were legally declared righteous because of faith were purified by blood to approach and worship God. (All the elements of our faith were present in the old). So that Christ fulfilled, not did away with the old. The covenant of works (or attempting to be right with God by obedience to the law) required perfect perpetual obedience. But God still made his people righteous through faith. (Children of Abraham).
How does Matthew Fit into that story?
Matthew is a Gospel -
What is a gospel?
Evangelion - “monumental inscription found in the Turkish town of Priene. It records an edict from Paulus Fabius Maximus, the Roman proconsul of Asia, issued in 9 B.C.E. The edict aligns the regional calendar with the Roman calendar, honoring Caesar Augustus by making his birthday the beginning day of the calendar year. “Providence has ordered all things and set them in order by giving us Caesar Augustus, whom she has filled with virtue that he might benefit all humanity, and has sent him as a savior for us and our descendants, that he might end war and bring order to all things … The birthday of the god was the beginning of the good news for the world …” Notice that Augustus’ birth is hailed as “good news” (Grk. euangelion), that is, the arrival of a new ruler and a new regime of “salvation” (Grk. soteria) that has brought peace, order, and “benefit” (Grk. euergesia, literally “doing of goodness”) to the known world.
A Gospel was a message that allowed a ruler (like the emperor) to spread good news about a military victory or political change to all his subjects.
Matthew is Jewish
60 References to OT all from the septuagint.
Focus throughout on Jesus doing things that fulfull what was written.
Focuses on Jesus reinterpritation of the Torah (Jewish scriptures)
Uses Jewish phrases of the day “Kingdom of Heaven”
Matthew is a continuation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Hebrew OT is in a different order. The last book is Chronicles (1st and 2nd were combined into one book). Chronicles was one of the few books that begins immediately with an extended genealogy.
The first words of Matthew are “Biblios Genesis.” The book of the genealogy, or beginning, or birth, of Jesus Christ.
Matthew seems to have a concept that his book will be included in the scriptures and will fit right in as the next book of Israel’s history after Chronicles, and as a call back to the beginning of the book in Genesis.
Jesus is also highlighted as the Son of david, the Son of abraham.
Matthew is emphasizing two things. First He is THE son of Abraham, the promised future offspring of Abraham that will fulfill the promises to Abraham that Israel was the placeholder for, and two he is THE awaited son of David.
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.
How does Matthew fit into the story of the New Testament?
What is the New Testament? This is the collection of writings about Jesus that define God’s new covenant with his people. The way that God has given us to be purified so that we can approach him is no long blood sacrifices of animals, but the sacrifice of Jesus.
The NT contains journalistic biographies of Jesus and the Apostles, Pastoral letters to churches, and an Apocalypse at the end.
Matthew is one of the four gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels.
Gospel - evangelion. A good news political message about how a new king has won a victory that will change how we live our lives. These are extended journalistic biographies that accomplish that spiritual/political purpose.
Synoptic - seeing the same. Three of the gospels reference each other and tell mostly the same story.
John is written later and includes more spiritual commentary.
These gospels form the backbone of our historical knowledge about Jesus life and ministry.
Mark was 1st, Matthew was next, Luke was next, John was written last.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all reference each other and use each other as source material. Luke was likely completed by 64-68 AD when Paul was killed in Rome. All three are likely completed before this time (within 25 yrs of the events described) and before the destruction of the temple.
Before these documents were completed the Church used statements like the one found in 1 Corinithians 15, Oral tradition, and the OT scriptures as the foundation of their services. The gospels began to be widely available in Codex form (like a book, not a scroll) before 100ad.
What are the main points and key themes of Matthew?
What are the main points and key themes of Matthew?
The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand
The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand
What is the kingdom of heaven in the OT?
For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.
For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.
And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left;
God is a King.
He rules over earth and over the hosts of heaven. He sits on a throne and maintans a kingdom.
God’s kingdom is eternal.
God’s kingdom is historical.
It is in heaven, but is active in history and embodied through the kings of Israel who act out God’s authority on earth through their position. David’s dynasty was the idealized earthly ruler for God’s kingdom. Earthly rulers brought the kingdom of heaven to earth by bringing peace, rightousness and justice.
Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son! May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice!
God’s kingdom is future.
The people knew that God’s authority extended over all the earth, but also saw that most of the earth was subject to evil rulers and evil spirits. God revealed that his universal reign would come at a future time.
The day of the Lord is first a judgment on the evil rulers and evil spirits behind them for how they ruled harshly over the earth.
Daniel the prophet sees a vision that wraps all of these ideas together. There will be a divine human who will rule this everlasting kingdom and bring people into a peaceful relationship with god and one another. In extra-bibical texts this coincides with a future defeat of spiritual enemies.
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
What is the kingdom of heaven in the NT?
The Kingdom of Heaven is Near
Jesus and John make the most shocking statement of all when they say “The kingom of heaven is at hand.” The kingdom in the heavenly realm, where God sits on a throne ruling over all the universe, sovereign over all the physical and spiritual realities both good and bad has become close to us. The futureness of the kingdom had become present.
Jesus proves this throughout his ministry be demonstrating his authority. The things that bound people (Demoninc power, sickness, religious authority, governmental systems, and ultimately death) were under his authority. He came preaching an evangelion of the arrival of a new king who was about to overthrow the current king (in the spiritual realm).
The Kingdom of Heaven is Like
Parables and teachings. Jesus describes the kingdom and the way his disciples live in light of the arrival of the kingdom in his sermons and parables.
Son of Man - Jesus explicitly links himself back to Daniel by describing himself as the son of man Matthew 16:28
Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
The Kingdom of About Spiritual Rule
The kindgom is described by paul as a thing that Jesus is building on earth. He is taking back territory from the evil spiritual authorities and powers through the spread of the Gospel. At the end, Christ delivers the spiritual kingdom to the father once all authorities are defeated and the Gospel is victorious on earth.
Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
In revelation the kingdom is a thing that exists in the heavens now and will exist on earth physcially at the end.
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
The Kingdom Already and Not Yet
The kingdom of heaven is a literal reality. Jesus and his followers rule in the heavens and expand the kingdom through spreading faith in Christ. This kingdom is embodied on earth through the BODY of christ, the church. We bring the influence of the kingdom to earth by exercising authority in the spheres God has given us (like the kings of Israel). We are to live by the ways of Jesus through faith in him and to embody his kingdom now physically, spread it spiritually, and look forward to the final culmination when the physical and spiritual are combined.
Jesus is the Messiah
Jesus is the Messiah
What were the Jews expecting in a Messiah?
Davidic ruler to re-establish the kingdom of God on earth.
They expected military victory and an expansive physical kingodm
How does Matthew show Jesus as fulfilling those expectations?
Jesus subverts those expectations. They missed out on some parts of the messianic profile because those parts were deliberately hidden. 1 Corinthians 2:8
None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Jesus is also the divine son of man
The kingdom of heaven is spiritual first, because supernatural evil is more important to destroy that physical oppression
Jesus makes a perfect and eternal way to be purified before the father
Jesus is Immanuel.
Jesus fulfills and extends beyond OT expectations through fulfillment of prophecy and typology.
Fulfillment of OT Types
Jesus as the New Moses in Matthew 1-5
What is typology?
Eternal pattern in the mind of God as a part of his story that is repeated in history.
Author intended repeated patterns
In the first section of Matthew we see Jesus re-enact themes from the story of Moses, acting both as Moses and as Israel.
We see Jesus did the following:
c. Miraculous Birth
d. Escaped infanticide
e. Lived in Egypt
f. Crossed the waters of the Jordan
g. Tempted in the wilderness
h. Gathers a people
i. Ascends a mountain and deliver’s God’s Law.
Moses did several of the same things in the exodus story.
a. Led God’s people out of the dominion of the powers
b. Won a victory of the powers of egypt
c. Won a victory over the human ruler of egypt
d. Created a new people group
e. Recieved the law
f. Established a system of worship for the faithful to approach God in purity
g. Extended the covenants of faith made to the forefathers
h. Developed a system of laws to moderate behavior to avoid moral failure or physical impurity to avoid the wrath of God.
Jesus also:
a. Created a new people by rescuing them from the dominion of the powers of all the nations
b. Won an ultimate victory of the powers of all the nations
c. Broke the authority of the human emperor (kingdom of God = empire of God, Gospel was a declaration of a king’s victory)
d. Fulfilled the worship systems of the law and expanded on the moral requirements of the law.
e. Purified the faithful ultimately and forever of internal moral stains (made a way for us to be healed and connected to God’s nature on earth)
f. Continued the covenant of faith and fulfilled the covenant of redemption.
What does this mean theologically? And in the context of the story?
Jesus is establishing a new nation this is the kingdom of heaven (his followers are citizens of a heavenly city/heavenly empire). He is building a new type of Kingdom. This is a bigger change than the people of Israel going from a loosely connected ethnic group that all descended from Abraham, to a nation with a king (from Moses to David).
Jesus is making a new KIND of kingdom Just like Moses established a new nation that was created out of nothing (DEUT 32:9) He is creating a nation in the spiritual realm out of those that follow him.
