Beginning the New Testament is a collection of four records of the birth, life, ministry, and death of Christ, often referred to as the gospel accounts. These are not four gospels, but rather four accounts of the same gospel, each written from a different viewpoint, with a different purpose, and to a different people.
The book of Matthew, the first of these four, bears the name of its inspired writer. There is no scriptural claim that Matthew was the author, but he has been accepted from antiquity as such and no credible evidence to the contrary has been forthcoming. Matthew, otherwise known as Levi, is identified in scripture in three ways: the son of Alphaeus, a tax-collector, and an apostle. His ancestry is of little importance, but his final two designations offer some insight into who he was. First, as a tax-collector, or publican, Matthew would have been engaged in a very lucrative occupation. Publicans were Jews appointed to this role by Rome for the purpose of collecting Caesar’s tribute. This fact made them hated intensely among the Jews who viewed them as traitors. However, it was in Matthew 9:10 that “as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.” Thus did Matthew leave a profitable vocation and humble himself under the authority and leadership of the Lord as one of twelve chosen apostles.
As mentioned, each of the gospel accounts was written in a particular manner for a particular group of people. Matthew’s account, throughout, proves its worth as having been written primarily for the benefit of the Jewish people. This evidence begins in even the first chapter as Matthew traces Christ’s ancestry to Abraham, the father of the Jews. Through the book Christ is continually pictured as the fulfillment of the Law and the prophets, a fact to which the Jews would have been most attracted. Added to this is the fact that almost one hundred times Matthew quotes the Old Testament scriptures and that about fifty times he alludes to the prophets proving that the Jews were at the forefront of his mind. Christ is portrayed throughout this book as the promised Messianic king for whom the Jews waited, the King of the Jews; and Matthew even recorded in its entirety the prophetic warning of Jerusalem’s doom at the hands of Rome in the second half of Matthew 25. All of this information obviously has value to anyone who reads it, but it was without question written from the Jewish perspective to warn the Jews of that which was to come and to prove to the Jews that Jesus Christ was the Son of God.
The book of Matthew is perhaps the most comprehensive of the gospel accounts, though all contain information not necessarily found in the others, in that it begins with events prior to the birth of Christ and records events until just prior to His ascension. It is with this comprehensive overview that the book of Matthew is divided into five sections.
First is the preliminary information found in Matthew 1:1-4:16. These chapters deal with everything leading up to the begin of His earthly ministry. Included is His genealogy, the promise of His birth, the birth itself, His flight from Herod and eventual return, and then finally His baptism at the hands of John and eventual temptation in the wilderness by Satan. This information in the sum of Matthews account regarding His first thirty years of life, though further information is pieced together from the other accounts.
The second section of this book is the beginning of His ministry (Matthew 4:17-7:29). Following his baptism and temptations, Christ immediately began proclaiming the message of His kingdom to all with whom he came in contact. His ministry was enhanced as he chose apostles, adding to His “work force.” And then He preached His first recorded sermon, and the one that would set the precedent for the following three years of His work and the ensuing result of His work, Christianity. The Sermon on the Mount was a landmark oration in which Christ began telling the people about the blessings of Christianity, the ideals of Christianity, and the means of Christianity. It was the foundation upon which all else He did rested.
A third section of this book deals with His final three years of life and work. Matthew 8:1-26:46 chronicle a multitude of truths taught and miracles performed, all of which were done for the intent purpose of identifying Himself as the Son of God, the Messiah. Over the course of those three years a host of people came to believe on Him, but likewise did a host of people come to hate Him and despise Him. It was the wrath of the latter that leads the book to the fourth section.
Matthew’s fourth section is the record of Jesus’ trial, sentencing, death, burial, and resurrection (Matthew 26:47-28:8). Judas, true to form and expectation, sold his Lord to the Jewish dissenters for thirty pieces of silver, and after being apprehended in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ was made to suffer a trial of incompetence and political corruption. He then was subjected to the cruelest form of torture and death imaginable at the time. The grave though could not hold Him for on the third day He defeated death and arose from the tomb, rendering a fatal blow to Satan and his cause of evil.
Then, Matthew’s fifth section (Matthew 28:9-20) records Christ’s appearance to many, including the apostles, just prior to His ascension. With a final charge to His beloved apostles, Christ gave them His divine plan for the propagation of the gospel and New Testament Christianity unto all the world by commanding them to go, teach, baptize, and instruct that His name and will might be known and enjoyed by all.
The book of Matthew transitions the student’s mind from the Old Testament to the New in a marvelous way, connecting everything previously studied. But likewise does it set an astounding tone for everything that will follow. Its truth summarily revealed is that which is the cornerstone of man’s salvation: Jesus is Christ, the Son of God (Matthew 16:18).