Matthew overview

Purpose & Theme

Matthew opens the New Testament by answering the question the whole Old Testament has been asking: where is the promised King? His Gospel presents Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of David and Son of Abraham, in whom every promise of the Scriptures finds its “Yes.” Written especially with a Jewish audience in mind, Matthew again and again shows how the life of Jesus fulfilled the prophets — “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet” — from His virgin birth and His flight to Egypt to His riding into Jerusalem on a donkey and His death for sinners. Jesus is the true Israel, the new and greater Moses, the Immanuel (“God with us”) who has come to save His people from their sins.

At the center of Matthew’s Gospel stands “the kingdom of heaven,” the reign of God that has broken into the world in the person of the King. Matthew gathers Jesus’ teaching into five great discourses — the Sermon on the Mount, the mission charge, the parables of the kingdom, the teaching on the church, and the sermon on the last things — that unfold the character, demands, and destiny of that kingdom. The Gospel moves steadily toward the cross and the empty tomb, where the King lays down His life as “a ransom for many” and rises victorious, and it ends not with a period but with a commission: the risen Christ, given “all authority in heaven and on earth,” sends His people to make disciples of all nations, promising, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Historical Context

Matthew, also called Levi, was a Jewish tax collector whom Jesus called from his tax booth to follow Him (Matthew 9:9). As one of the twelve apostles, he was an eyewitness of much that he records. Early and consistent church tradition names him the author of this Gospel, likely written between AD 60 and 70, before or around the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, which Jesus foretold in chapter 24.

The Gospel bears the marks of an author writing to fellow Jews and Jewish Christians: it is saturated with the Old Testament (with more than sixty quotations and countless allusions), it assumes familiarity with Jewish customs, and it is deeply concerned to show that Jesus is the Messiah promised to Israel. At the same time, Matthew’s vision is not narrow: from the Gentile magi who worship the infant King in chapter 2 to the Great Commission to “all nations” in chapter 28, his Gospel reaches out to the whole world. Traditionally placed first in the New Testament, Matthew forms the perfect bridge from the Old Testament to the New, opening with a genealogy that ties Jesus to Abraham and David.

Structure & Outline

Matthew is built around five major discourses of Jesus, each following a section of narrative and each closing with a similar formula (“when Jesus had finished these sayings”):

• The Coming of the King (Chapters 1-4) — genealogy, birth, baptism, and temptation.
• The Sermon on the Mount (Chapters 5-7) — the first discourse: the manifesto of the kingdom.
• Ministry and the Mission Charge (Chapters 8-10) — miracles and the sending of the Twelve.
• Parables and Growing Opposition (Chapters 11-13) — the kingdom’s mystery and mounting rejection.
• The Church Foreshadowed (Chapters 14-18) — Peter’s confession, the transfiguration, and life together.
• Jerusalem and the Last Things (Chapters 19-25) — the journey up, confrontation, and the Olivet Discourse.
• Death and Resurrection (Chapters 26-28) — the passion, the empty tomb, and the Great Commission.

How This Book Points to Jesus

Matthew’s Gospel is about Jesus from first to last, but it presents Him with particular emphasis as the King and Fulfiller. He is the son of David, the royal heir whose kingdom will have no end; the son of Abraham, through whom all nations are blessed; and Immanuel, “God with us,” the divine Son who has come to dwell among His people. Matthew’s recurring refrain — that this or that happened “to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet” — presses the truth that Jesus is the goal toward which all the Scriptures were straining. He is the new Moses who gives the true law from the mountain, the true Israel who succeeds where the nation failed, and the suffering Servant who gives His life as a ransom.

Above all, Matthew shows Jesus as the Savior-King who reigns by dying. The One born “King of the Jews” is enthroned on a cross under that very title, laying down His life to “save his people from their sins,” and God vindicates Him by raising Him from the dead. The Gospel closes with the risen Christ declaring, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” and sending His disciples to the nations with the promise of His unending presence. Every theme of Matthew — fulfillment, kingdom, righteousness, discipleship — finds its center and its answer in the person of Jesus, the crucified and risen King who is worthy of worship and to whom every knee will bow.