Sermon Tone Analysis

Major Theme

Jesus is the King

He is the king of the Jews

The king of the Gentiles

That king is worthy of worship

The Audience

Hebrews

Traditional Jews

Matthew is trying to show Jesus is the King and Messiah of Isreal

More than 60 quotes From OT

Many Jewish traditions go unexplained or assumed

The Author

Matthew the tax collector

The disciple of Jesus

The man with first hand knowledge of the King

The Prologue of the Story

Chapters 1-4 introduce us to this main character

Chapter 1: The bloodline

Where does Jesus Come from

Who is he writing to they would understand exactly how important these names were

God’s faithfulness goes all the way back to Abraham

All good kings need to have a good blood line

Even broken ones

5 women 3 of whom are not even Hebrew

Terrible kings and good ones

The perfect generations 14/14/14

From this genealogy we get to see that he is

The King of the Jews

The son of David

The King of the Gentiles

The son of Abraham

Remember Abraham wasnt a Jew originally

This is the King of whom it is prophesied

Matthew wants his reader to understand that this Jesus is the one who fulfils prophecy

Chapter 2 Worship of the King

We see the King who is worthy of worship

These non Jews come in searching for him and when they find him they worship him

He is obviously a King worthy of worship from all

However we do see a minor theme here the Jews who should have also worshipped seek to kill him

A King who fulfils prophecy

Matthew 2 :15, 17, 23

The royal family flees to egypt

Matthew points to more prophecy fulfilled Matthew 2:15 “15 and remained there until the death of Herod.

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

Quote from Hosea 11:1 “1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”

A problem here we see Isreal not the Messiah

This is something Matthew sets up for his readers to see that Jesus will succeed everywhere the nation of Isreal failed.

He will be called out of Egypt just as Isreal was

Harrod Kills all first born children again prohecy fulfilled Matthew 2:17 “17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:”

The Nazarene

Most likely one who is despised pr looked down on therefore fulfillin the prohecy in Ps 22:6 “6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.”

or Is 49:7 “7 Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.””

Chapter 3 The baptism

John now shows up on the scene for us to see the one who prepares the way

This again is more prophecy fulfilled by Jesus

Matthew is setting a scene in which his readers will walk through the play and understand exactly who Jesus is from the out set

The gospels lead with this this is a bit of an origin story for Jesus

He gets in the water to identify with us

Even though no baptism for repentance was required of him

He will go into the waters of the Jordan and come out in order to spend 40 days being tempted

Chapter 4 The Temptation and Beginnings of Ministry

We see the humanness of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness

For 40 days he was in the dessert the Jewish reader would understand and continue to draw the lines between Israel’s own endeavor in the wilderness and Jesus’s successful one

Matthew 4:14-16 “14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— 16 the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.””

Prophecy fulfilled again

Jesus recuits disciples

notice the immediacy of their response

The 5 part play

Each section has Jesus teaching followed by a narrative

Sermon on the mount (Chapter 5-7; Chapter 8-9)

The commissioning of the apostles (Chapter 10; Chapter 11-12)

The parables about the kingdom (Chapter 13; Chapter 14-17)

Teaching on child likeness of the believer (Chapter 18; Chapter 19-23)

The Olivet Discourse (Chapter 24-25; Chapter 26-28:15)

Matthew has more of Jesus’s teaching than the other Gospels.

We get to see and hear directly from the King

He teaches us how to live and how we gain access to the kingdom

He shows us how we ought to live

Sermon on the Mount

Teaching Matthew 5-7; Narrative Matthew 8-9

This is the first discourse in the Gospel of Matthew

The Teaching Matthew 5-7

Jesus first teaching is probably the most consequential for how we understand how to live

He is clarifying not so much redefining the way we live our lives

He is teaching us what it looks like to be a subject in the kingdom

And a subject of the king

The beatitudes

A simple yet profound expression of how to win the approval of God

I think many times we read blessed to be happy or content

But Blessed is not a feeling more the state of a believer being approved by God

Blessed or approved are the

Poor in spirit

Those who mourn

The meek

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

The merciful

The pure in heart

The peacemaker

The persecuted

The first four deal with our posture before God and the last four on our relationships with each other