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Matthew narrates the first of four confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees. Who is in charge of the Sabbath: Jesus or the Pharisees?
Matthew narrates the second of four confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees. The Pharisees set a trap for Jesus relating to the healing of a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath.
Matthew tells us that Jesus is not harmed by the Pharisees’ plot to destroy Him at this time. He continues to heal people, but is careful to keep His identity as the Messiah a mystery. Matthew highlights how this is another rich fulfillment of one of Isaiah’s prophecies.
Matthew narrates the third of four confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees. Finding themselves unable to deny the miraculous power Jesus has, the Pharisees accuse Him of being a demonic agent.
Jesus speaks two proverbs whose core truth reveals that anyone who is not with Jesus and His kingdom is working against Him.
Jesus gives the Pharisees a very serious warning. Anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven.
Jesus shares an analogy of a fruit tree to show the relationship between a man’s words and his heart. He tells the Pharisees that their words are evil because their heart is evil. Words reveal the heart to our glory or shame.
Matthew narrates the fourth confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees. The Pharisees attempt to entrap Jesus by asking for a sign proving that He is the Messiah.
Jesus describes a strange truth about demon-possession and likens it to this evil generation.
Jesus takes an opportunity to teach the truth that whoever lives his life in harmony with God by doing the will of His Father, is His family.
The Gospel of Matthew was written to demonstrate to the Jews of Jesus, the Messiah’s generation that He was indeed the Christ. Matthew thematically substantiates the Messianic identity of Jesus beginning with the genealogy of Jesus, which ran from Abraham, the father of Israel’s people through King David who was promised to have a son who would be on Israel’s throne forever. Throughout his Gospel account Matthew makes use of numerous prophecies both explicitly stated and by way of subtle allusion to support his thesis. Matthew further makes use of parallel events in Jesus’s life to those of Messianic figures from the Old Testament (Moses, Joseph, David, etc.) to bolster his argument.
Jesus came to offer the Jews the chance to participate in the inauguration of the Messianic Kingdom. To do this, they would have to receive and follow Him as their Messiah. Jesus’s message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Ultimately, they rejected Him as their Messiah and condemned Jesus to death by crucifixion. The Jews’ rejection of the Messiah opened the door for Gentiles to enter the kingdom (Matthew 8:11-12, 22:1-10). Matthew’s Gospel is therefore a call for the Jews repent of their murder of Jesus and to embrace Him for the divine Messiah He is.
Matthew shows how their rejection of Him and His brutal death was predicted not only by Jesus Himself, but also was foretold in the Jewish scriptures of the Messiah.
The main proof that Jesus was the Messiah was “the sign of Jonah” (Matthew 12:39, 16:4). This was Jesus’s death and resurrection from the dead. “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40).
Because Matthew’s Gospel was written to people who were already members of God’s eternal family by virtue of their faith in God’s promise to send the Messiah, Matthew emphasizes the “reward of eternal life” (aka “The Prize of Eternal Life”) rather than “the Gift of Eternal Life”. In other words, Matthew’s Gospel focuses on how to “enter the kingdom” rather than how to “be born again”.
Matthew’s Gospel demonstrates how Jesus came to fulfill the law and open a way for God’s people to participate in the Messianic kingdom if they would follow His example of worshiping God from the heart by forgiving and serving others.
For “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). If we have faith to follow the example set forth by the resurrected Messiah, whom all authority on heaven and earth has been granted (Matthew 28:18) and take up our cross for His sake (Matthew 16:24-25), then we will become great in His kingdom (Matthew 20:26).
Finally, Matthew provides extensive samples of Jesus’s teachings including “the Sermon on the Mount”, “the Little Commission”, and “the Olivet Discourse” and many parables, alongside accounts of numerous miracles and wonders, personal moments with His twelve disciples, interactions with seekers, and increasingly as his Gospel account progresses: challenges and confrontations with His adversaries – the Pharisees, Scribes, and Priests.
Matthew narrates a series of four confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees. Matthew has hinted at and even shared conflicts between the Pharisees and Christ’s ministry before, but in this chapter, he presents the Pharisees as the main human opposition to Jesus and His kingdom. The first two confrontations involve Jesus’s actions on the Sabbath. The third is over the nature of Jesus’s miraculous authority. And the fourth is the Pharisees’ demand that Jesus demonstrate a sign to prove His claims. The chapter ends with Jesus describing His followers as family.