BibleProject New Testament Series - Lesson 3

BP150-03 - Matthew (Part 2)

The Gospel according to Matthew. In the first video we saw how Matthew introduced Jesus as the Messiah from the line of David, and as a new authoritative teacher like Moses, and also as Emmanuel which in Hebrew means "God with us." After Jesus announced and taught about the arrival of God's kingdom and after he brought the kingdom into day-to-day life among the people of Israel, we saw that Jesus was accepted by many but rejected by others, especially Israel's religious leaders, the Pharisees. And so the big question is, "How is this conflict between Jesus and Israel's leaders going to play itself out?" The next large section, chapters 14 through 20, explore all the different expectations people have about the Messiah. Jesus keeps healing sick people and twice he even miraculously provides food for these huge crowds in the desert, one made up of Jewish people and the other is a non-jewish crowd. And this sign is very similar to what Moses did for Israel in the wilderness. And so are these people are excited about Jesus, they think he's the great prophet and the Messiah, but not the religious leaders. Their view of the Messiah is built on passages like Psalm 2 or Daniel chapter 2, about a victorious Messiah who is going to deliver Israel and defeat the pagan oppressors. And from their point of view, Jesus is a false teacher. He's making blasphemous claims about himself and so there are stories here about them increasing their opposition, hatching a plan to kill him. And so in response, Jesus, he withdraws. And he begins teaching his closest disciples what it means for him to be Israel's Messiah because it is not what anybody expects. So Jesus asked his disciples-- chapter 16-- he says, "Who do you all say that I am?" And Peter comes up with the right answer, it seems. He says, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." But then it becomes clear that Peter's thinking about a king who's going to reign victoriously through military power. And Jesus challenges Peter, saying that "Yes, I am going to become king, but through a different way." And so Jesus starts to teach on themes from the prophet Isaiah who said that the Messianic King would suffer and die for the sins of his own people. And so Jesus, he was positioning himself as a Messianic king who reigns by becoming a servant and who would lay down his life for Israel and the nations. Peter and the disciples, they mostly just don't get it. And so Jesus enters into the fourth block of teaching followed by a series of teachings after that. And these are all about the upside down nature of Jesus' Messianic Kingdom--which turns upside down all of our value systems. So in the community of the servant king you gain honor by serving others and instead of getting revenge, you forgive and do good to your enemies. And in Jesus' kingdom you gain true wealth by giving your wealth away to the poor. To follow the servant Messiah, you must become a servant yourself. In the next section we watched the two kingdoms clash--Jesus' kingdom and that of Israel's leader. Jesus comes to Jerusalem for Passover riding in on a donkey and the crowds are hailing him as the Messiah. Jesus immediately marches into the courtyard of the temple and he creates this huge disruption that brings the daily sacrifices to a halt. His actions speak louder than words here. As Israel's King, Jesus was asserting his royal authority over the temple, the place where God and Israel met together. And in Jesus' view, the temple was compromised by the hypocrisy of Israel's leaders and so here he's challenging their authority and naturally they're deeply offended. And so they try to trap Jesus and shame him in public debate and they fail. So they end up just determining to have him killed. In response, Jesus delivers his final block of teaching. He first offers this passionate critique of the Pharisees and their hypocrisy. And then he weeps over Jerusalem and its rejection of God and His Kingdom. Then Jesus withdraws with the disciples and he starts telling them what's going to happen. He's going to be executed by these leaders, but in doing so they're going to create their own demise because instead of accepting Jesus' way of the Peaceful Kingdom they're going to take the road of revolt against Rome and so Jerusalem and its temple are going to be destroyed. But Jesus says that is not the end of the story. He's going to be vindicated after his death by his resurrection and one day he'll return and set up his kingdom over all nations. And so in the meanwhile, the disciples need to stay alert and stay committed to just announcing Jesus and His Kingdom and spreading the good news. And so with all of that ringing in the disciples ears, the story comes to its climax. That night Jesus takes the disciples aside and he celebrates the Passover meal with them. Passover retells the story of Israel's rescue from slavery through the death of the Passover lamb. And then Jesus takes the bread and the wine from this meal as new symbols showing that his coming death would be a sacrifice that would redeem his people from slavery to sin and evil. After the meal, Jesus is arrested, he's put on trial before the Sanhedrin, the Council of Jewish leaders. And they reject his claim to be the Messiah. They charge him with blasphemy against God. Then Jesus is brought before the Roman governor, Pilate, and he thinks Jesus is innocent, but he gives in to the pressure from the Jewish leaders and he sentences Jesus to death by crucifixion. So Jesus is led away by Roman soldiers and then crucified. Now you'll notice right here in this section that, just like Matthew did in the opening chapters, he increases the number of references to the Old Testament. He's trying to show that Jesus' death was not a tragedy or failure. Rather, it was the surprising fulfillment of all of the old, prophetic promises. Jesus came as the Servant Messiah spoken of by Isaiah. He was rejected by his own people but instead of judging them, he is judged on their behalf, bearing the consequences of their sin. So the crucifixion scene, it comes to a close, and Jesus' body is placed in a tomb. But the book ends with a surprising twist--the last chapter. The disciples, they discover on Sunday morning that Jesus' tomb is empty. And then all of a sudden people start seeing Jesus alive from the dead. And the book concludes with the risen Jesus giving a final teaching called the Great Commission. Jesus says that he is now the true king of the world and so he sends his disciples out to all nations with the good news that Jesus is Lord and that anyone can join his kingdom by being baptized and by following his teachings. And echoing all the way back to his name, Emmanuel, God with us, from chapter one, Jesus' last words in the book to his disciples are "I will be with you." It's a promise of Jesus' presence until the day he finally returns. And that's the Gospel according to Matthew.